A New Direction

I think that I have to leave Biotech. It is becoming a decision that is being forced upon me from without, but it is a decision that will be for the best in the long run.

I don't like to think about it too much, but for the last eleven years, I have been working in a business (Rapid HIV testing) that is doomed from the start. The companies that I have worked for during this time have not been companies that created a viable product. Rather than that awful choice, they have been companies that created a totem for investor to ogle and throw their volatile money.

In the United States, there will never be a significant market in rapid HIV testing. Even if the USFDA allows an over the counter version of this out, the market for sluts and man-ho's in this country is too small to support the business. All of the companies that are chasing this rainbow have spent a minimum of US$40,000,000 to get to this point. There is no way on God's green earth that 4-5 companies with a total outlay to date of greater than US$200,000,000 can recoup their outlays with sales in the United States.

So lets look at the global market. Europe is a small, old society with a medical system that keeps the capitalist nature in line, there is no market there. China and India have their own internal industries that they will support, they will not allow American companies to enter that market at the level needed to recoup the losses to date.

So you are left with Africa and South America. Africa is a basket case that doesn't have the money for anything other than the US$0.60 tests that the NGO's can offer. South America is an afterthought, too small to make a difference, too hostile to the NorteAmericanos to buy from us.

The money was good. I got to travel and get out of debt. But it is time to move on.