RMTI- Any opinions
I have tracked this co for some time but have never felt the need to pull the trigger and invest. The main business for the co. (dialysis supplies) has been luke-warm at best, and poor in terms of market share growth. The margins are small and the competition is great. Sure, they now have an Iron replacement supplement that is novel, but the question remains regarding adoption of a new replacement (at likely high retail costs) versus an entirely adequate replacement regimen that is low cost and easily managed. Now consider this: the company has a sales force that is relatively small and NOT in the drug sales end of this business. True, they have customers who might be interested, but significant sales would have to come from outside of their customer network. One would hope for some type of partnership or licensing deal, but there appears to be more work to be done with regard to pre-marketing preparations. From today's PR:
"Since our FDA approval of Triferic, interest from the clinical community in gaining access to the drug has been strong across large and small dialysis organizations. Short-term pilot evaluations are being coordinated among some of the larger groups to establish internal protocol, prior to clinic-wide use. We anticipate these pilot studies will begin in the next few weeks. Once internal protocols are established and working satisfactorily, we expect to see broad-based clinical adoption of Triferic.
I don't think that sales will be nil, but I'm not holding my breath for gangbuster sales either. I continue to monitor.
aj
