Nephron Research LLC

This year’s Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) meeting was  a great opportunity to take the pulse of electrophysiologists on how they’re incorporating Farapulse and Medtronic’s PulseSelect into their practices, whether these catheters are living up to the hype as they transition to broad commercial use, what technologies they’re displacing as adoption ramps, and how the PFA competitive landscape could evo...

The China market remains dynamic for our Life Science Tools & Diagnostics coverage.  On May 17th, Jack Meehan hosted a discussion with Dr. Mao Mao for an updated on-the-ground view as to the factors driving investment trends in the region.  Topics of discussion included: 1) BioSecure Act: Thoughts on impact of US Congressional efforts to target Chinese competitors, and potential for a response...

On Dec. 11th, Jack Meehan hosted a KOL discussion for an updated on-the-ground view as to the factors driving investment trends in Life Science Tools & Diagnostics in the region. Topics of discussion included: 1) Perspectives on the current macro situation in China, 2) Views on investment into life science tools and diagnostics, 3) a discussion on current capacity for various industries our co...

On Dec. 11th, Jack Meehan hosted a KOL discussion for an updated on-the-ground view as to the factors driving investment trends in Life Science Tools & Diagnostics in the region. Topics of discussion included: 1) Perspectives on the current macro situation in China, 2) Views on investment into life science tools and diagnostics, 3) a discussion on current capacity for various industries our co...

On Dec. 5th, Jack Meehan hosted a KOL call on the bioprocessing industry.  Bioprocessing has historically been one of the fastest growing areas of our coverage, and we think the long-term outlook is bright. However, the industry is facing short-term headwinds from excess inventory and the roll-off of demand for COVID-19.  Topics of discussion on this conference call included an overview on the env...

Our Tools & Dx coverage is facing a macro and micro storm in the China market.  Jack Meehan hosted a discussion with Dr. Mao Mao and Dr. John Zhang for an on-the-ground view as to the factors driving investment trends in Life Science Tools & Diagnostics in the region . Topics of discussion included: 1) Perspectives on the current macro situation in China, 2) Views on investment into life s...

On June 27th, Jack Meehan hosted a discussion on the laboratory and diagnostic industries with two thought leaders in the space . Topics of discussion included: COVID-19 : Demand for COVID-19 testing solutions is winding down following the conclusion of the public health emergency. We plan to discuss implications for the Diagnostics industry repurposing or de-commissioning equipment taken on, and...

On June 6th, Jack Meehan hosted a KOL call on the bioprocessing industry.  Topics of discussion on this conference call included an overview on the environment for bioprocessing purchasing, stocking trends, demand dynamics from COVID-19, views on various suppliers and product categories, and a discussion on quality of CDMO participants.   

Following the read-out of Guardant Health’s ECLIPSE study, the big debate is on FDA approvability of the Shield assay in CRC screening. On April 12th, Jack Meehan hosted two former FDA leaders to discuss Shield’s clinical data in ECLIPSE, FDA considerations for approval of the test built on historical experience, and the potential approval pathway for liquid biopsy. Andrea Chamblee, former FDA Dir...

Following the read-out of Guardant Health’s ECLIPSE study, we hosted a KOL discussion on how the results and potential introduction of liquid biopsy might influence the market for CRC screening . We were joined by one primary care physician (Dr. Gary Cohen, North Shore Physicians Group) and one gastroenterologist (Dr. Jatin Roper, Duke U. School of Medicine) to get two differing opinions on the EC...

Joseph Tyler, MS, Consultant at Pharmsupply Inc. Brian Tham, Biotechnology Consultant at Pelegrine Bio. On November 22nd, Nephron hosted a KOL call on the bioprocessing industry.  Bioprocessing has historically been one of the fastest growing areas of our coverage, and we think the long-term outlook is bright. However, the industry is facing some short-term headwinds from excess inventory and the...

On October 5th, we hosted an expert call discussion on how the ECLIPSE results and potential introduction of liquid biopsy might influence the market for CRC screening . Topics of discussion included adoption of non-invasive diagnostics for colorectal cancer screening, such as Cologuard and liquid biopsy. In addition, we will discuss the how emerging entrants in liquid biopsy stack up in the testi...

On September 8th, we hosted a KOL call with two researchers to discuss their experience with Illumina and considerations when evaluating competitor systems. Dr. Joseph Powell is a current NovaSeq customer, who weighed in on purchasing perspectives through the eyes of a high-throughput customer. Dr. Yuriy Alekseyev is a current NextSeq customer performing RNA Seq research, who discussed the competi...

Myriad published the results of the PRIME Care Study on Tuesday afternoon in JAMA . In the 2K patient study, GeneSight was successful on both of the co-primary endpoints. Despite the rosy headlines, the devil is always in the details! Such was the case with the GUIDED Study published in 2019. To help pick through the results, Nephron hosted a Q&A call  with the leading KOL in the category of p...

On Friday we were joined for a discussion with two diagnostics experts, Ms. Camille Hu and Terry Robins, who provided an on-the-ground view as to what is happening in the China market for diagnostics testing . Topics of discussion included: 1) Perspectives on investments in the Diagnostics industry in China; 2) An update on COVID-19 trends in the region and implications for the diagnostics industr...

On March 29th, Richard Panico and John Diaz  joined us for an update on the latest trends in biopharma services . The durability of biopharma investment has been a major area of focus for our CROs and life science tools coverage to start 2022. In this discussion, we debated funding trends, clinical trial demand, the impact of consolidation of the CRO industry, demand for labor, and also discuss th...

Following the ASCO-GI annual meeting, Nephron hosted a discussion with two key opinion leaders to discuss the latest innovation in diagnostics for colorectal cancer (CRC) . Topics of discussion included adoption of non-invasive diagnostics for colorectal cancer screening, such as Cologuard and liquid biopsy. In addition, we discussed the latest data updates from Exact Sciences for Cologuard 2.0, a...

Heading into 3Q21 earnings, one of the top debates for our coverage is the China region – and changes in policy which may encourage “buy local” initiatives in Diagnostics. Diagnostics experts  Dr. Mao Mao and Ms. Camille Hu joined us for a discussion and provided an on-the-ground view as to what is happening in the market. Topics of discussion included: 1) An overview on how the Chinese national g...

This morning, Nephron hosted Dr. Albert Vilella for a conversation focused on next generation sequencing (NGS) and genomics technologies.  Topics of discussion included investment trends in NGS, an overview on the differentiation amongst new platforms under development, a discussion on the relative cost and quality of different systems, and how the competitive landscape could change over the next...

On Monday July 12th, Nephron hosted Ross Margulies of Foley Hoag. Topics of discussion included: The status of 340B under the Biden administration, including the threat to fine drug makers for curtailing distribution of discounted drugs to contract pharmacies, the role, if any of alternative dispute resolution to resolve the issue, and what might be next from the administration. An update on the m...

On Friday May 21st at 10:30 AM ET, Jack Meehan, lead analyst Life Science Tools & Diagnostics, and Eric Percher, lead analyst Pharma Supply Chain, Pricing & Policy, hosted a joint 20-min call exploring their recent reports on biopharma end market growth and the outlook for specialty pharmacy growth 2021-2025, respectively. Topics included: Comprehensive update on the biopharma end market t...

On May 18th, Nephron Research hosted a discussion on the latest updates in bioprocessing with one of the top thought leaders in the industry, Dr. Howard Levine . Topics of discussion included the backdrop for industry funding, an analysis of supply/demand capacity, as well as a closer look at the technologies and providers playing a leading role in the category.  We discussed an updated view on th...

On Friday March 12th, Nephron hosted one of the top diagnostics payor experts in the field, Dr. Joel Brill for a discussion on reimbursement prospects for early cancer detection testing.  Our discussion focused on the health economics of screening for CRC and multi-cancer focused liquid biopsy tests, the potential reimbursement pathways for Medicare, and steps needed to earn coverage. We also disc...

On Friday, March 5th,  Nephron hosted Dr. Niall Lennon (one of the top experts in technology assessment in the field) for an update on the latest genomics technologies following AGBT 2021.  Each year, AGBT is the largest annual meeting for genomics and biology for our coverage. Topics of discussion included an update on the NIH’s All of Us Program , where Niall is helping to lead the Broad Institu...

On February 23rd, Nephron Research hosted a brief call to discuss our Telehealth initiation of coverage note out on Monday February 22nd.  Key topics included: Updated Telehealth Utilization Data – we see utilization normalizing in the high single-digits Comprehensive Post Pandemic Market Analysis –  public players + private pure plays + EMR vendors + telecom software Pure Play Telehealth Competit...