X-Message-Number: 12261 Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1999 05:43:32 -0700 (PDT) From: diana singh <> Subject: The industry/market effect Hi everyone, The last few days has seen a lot of talk on cryonics research, whether it will be driven by the cryonics community or it will become a general industry driven (like cancer) one. Mr. Ettinger wrote; <BioTime has obtained approval from the FDA to market its blood plasma volume expander, trademarked Hextend, for use in surgery, and licensed Abbott Labs--a major pharmaceutical house, with annual sales of over $12 billion--to manufacture and market it. The potential market for Hextend is estimated at $400 million per year.> Being in the stock market (in Bombay) for over a decade I have seen how companies evolve from being a $10 million market cap to a $1 billion market cap. This generally happens because of the following reasons; - The company focuses more on its core compentecy and is the most favoured company by its clients in that sector. - It ties up with a foriegn (European or American) company for technical collaboration or equity placement. - It patents some new product/process/technique which gives it an edge in the market. - The company becomes more transparent adopting sound financial practises and reducing its debt burden. - It rewards its shareholders with dividends and bonus shares every time it notches up a good performance. What I am trying to say is that if cryonics moves from being a small group based movement to a larger industry/market driven one it will become much more dynamic. Changes will take place that no one now can forecast. Money will be focused on the successful companies (like 21cM) not by the shareholders but the newer market participants (like mutual funds and high net woth individuals). Some of these companies will become targets of bigger pharma/technology companies and will be taken over. Eventually the cryonics movement should move into big league. This is a very efficient method of gaining acceptance and market for our products and ideas. The process outlined above might not be as simple as that but it has happened so often that it merits discussion. As I said before Internet, IT , Healthcare, Pharma, Telecom, E commerce and many others are all coming into their own or have already made a mark because of the industry/market dynamics. And this also means competition and a lot of companies losing out. Just think what will happen if you have a dozen cryonics related companies listed on NASDAQ and the target of takeover by the big pharma/tech companies that already exist today. Mr. Saul Kent will either be a billionaire or looking for a new project and a new name. And in his place will be hundreds of Bills, Pauls, Moorthys (N. Moorthy made his first billion in India of all the places and is the richest Indian and he made this in ten years flat!. He heads Infosys technology listed as INFY on NASDAQ a major IT company in India) who will swamp the market with dozens of cryonics products, processes and techniques. I think the answer lies somewhere nearer to George than Thomas. Although what Thomas says <Perhaps you should study the problem of preserving brains a bit more. I would not knock back any kind of technology if it looks as if it will help us, but it must still be applied to OUR problems, not those of preserving kidneys or livers. And when I think about the problems involved in doing so, I see plenty of problems, each one of which will have to be carefully researched.> is very important to the success of cryonics in general. The core issues of cryonics will always be handled by a small group (the members of this group will change with time) but the business of selling and applying cryonics will and should move on. Gurvinder _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12261