From Y! Board Regarding Meeting
The two days were a success. They were asked to stay onsite today for some follow up meetings. There seemed to be interest from the Gates people. We will know if they file for a grant next week. I was able to get from the spokesperson, that they went through what that process would take, so it's more than likely they will file for the grant next week. If they do, then its clear they were asked to do this formality. This should start the process, so we want to look for a PR on any grant filings. If this gets moved through quicker due to these meetings, we should really see some interest about receiving funds. I couldn't get exacts, but was told it was in the multiple Millions range.
Don't let the fear mongers try to bring up the Cepheid news. There are even more than them vying for this piece of TB detection and testing. However, even though the WHO put out an article, the endorsed product coming from the US lab is the IOBs. We should expect to see an article from at least two who visited on the IOBS. TB is a major world topic right now. They will have articles on anything they investigate in order to keep the public aware, that they are keeping this in the forefront. With LANLs endorsement, and the portability, which I was told was a session in itself, IOBs will gets its place in this space, and should lead the way.
Since they are still there visiting, we shouldn't see any updates until next week. From a small talk with Paul, they don't plan to rush and put something out late Friday or over the weekend. I would suspect they get their notes in a detailed PR for a Monday release, Tuesday at the latest. One side note I heard, this technology will not be put back on the shelf, and will continue as a priority with LANL. That is big for BMGP. Since we wont have to press them to keep it live, they know it is critical they keep moving forward.
If I can get anything else today, Ill post it. But I would expect as the day winds down and people travel back home, this should be hard to hear back, unless someone takes the point to do any weekend follow ups.
BMGP will be the front runner as far as a US backed portable detection system, with almost 100% accuracy.
