{"id":535252,"date":"2010-04-20T09:30:45","date_gmt":"2010-04-20T13:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xconomy.com\/?p=73896"},"modified":"2010-04-20T09:30:45","modified_gmt":"2010-04-20T13:30:45","slug":"for-san-diego-biomedical-firms-with-stakes-in-swine-flu-it%e2%80%99s-time-for-a-check-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/535252","title":{"rendered":"For San Diego Biomedical Firms with Stakes in Swine Flu, It\u2019s Time for a Check-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Life Sciences<\/a>, innovation<\/a>, H1N1 Swine Flu<\/a><\/div>\n

\t\t\"SwineFlu\"<\/a>
\n\t\tDenise Gellene wrote:<\/strong><\/p>\n

As swine flu raced through colleges and communities last summer and fall, at least five San Diego companies with flu-related products or research programs saw their share prices surge. Investors were betting that swine flu, the predominant circulating flu virus in the U.S., presented a real opportunity for these companies.<\/p>\n

Now comes the reckoning. The influenza season, which normally runs from October through May, is winding down. An update issued April 9<\/a> by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said influenza cases were declining or stable throughout the country, and the percentage of all doctors’ visits by patients with flu-like symptoms had fallen to 1.1 percent—well below the seasonal norm—from a high of 7.8 percent last October.<\/p>\n

Last September,<\/a> I\u00a0looked at San Diego companies with stakes in swine flu. The time has come to\u00a0see how they have actually performed since the World Health Organization declared a global H1N1 swine flu pandemic in June.<\/p>\n

—I’ll begin with Quidel (NASDAQ: QDEL<\/a>). The diagnostic-test maker received special government clearance last summer to market its QuickVue rapid flu test for swine flu. The company told investors last summer it expected a revenue bump from sales of the tests.<\/p>\n

And how. Quidel reported\u00a0a 38 percent increase in 2009 net sales of infectious disease-related products. Total revenue jumped 28 percent for the year, driven by global sales of influenza products. Quidel’s shares are up about 12 percent since last June.<\/p>\n

However, Quidel has already warned investors not to expect a repeat of its 2009 financial performance. “We do not plan for or expect the influenza pandemic of 2009 to recur in 2010. Accordingly, we expect a significant decrease in our influenza test sales, related earnings, and cash flows during 2010,” Quidel said in its annual filing with the SEC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

—Life Technologies (NASDAQ: LIFE<\/a>) produces equipment that runs a diagnostic test, developed and distributed by the CDC, that can determine if patients are infected with the specific strain of the influenza A virus that causes swine flu.<\/p>\n

The test has become the de facto standard in H1N1 detection, which makes Life’s equipment\u00a0a must-have for public health labs. Life experienced an equipment-buying frenzy last spring, followed by an increase in sales of reagents to run the swine flu tests. The products contributed …Next Page »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Life Sciences, innovation, H1N1 Swine Flu Denise Gellene wrote: As swine flu raced through colleges and communities last summer and fall, at least five San Diego companies with flu-related products or research programs saw their share prices surge. Investors were betting that swine flu, the predominant circulating flu virus in the U.S., presented a real […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2918,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-535252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2918"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}