Originally
Published IVD Technology March 2003
EDITOR'S PAGE
Staying Commited to R&D
The long-term success of IVD manufacturers depends to a large extent on its
commitment to supporting research and development efforts. In order to succeed in the highly competitive IVD industry, companies must be willing
to invest in R&D and continually come up with technologies and products that improve upon
those of the past.
The investment that IVD manufacturers put into R&D is not limited to dollars and
cents. In addition to committing adequate financial resources, companies must also
invest in their employees. To ensure that it is conducting the research needed to develop new
technologies and products, companies must first be sure that the proper personnel with the appropriate
level of scientific expertise are in place.
Of course, having such expertise in-house does not guarantee that IVD manufacturers will develop
innovative technologies that will succeed in the marketplace. Successful technologies tend to emerge
when companies go beyond what they’ve done before and think about how to improve their technologies. To develop such technologies,
companies must challenge their researchers to be creative and think outside the box.
During these difficult economic times, when long-term objectives can easily be abandoned in favor of short-term survival, it may be difficult for IVD manufacturers
to maintain a steady commitment to investing in R&D. Despite such difficulties,
companies should make the most of their limited resources to continue funding their
R&D efforts, or risk the possibility of no longer being competitive in the IVD market.
One way to make an IVD company’s R&D dollars go further is to explore the potential applications of technologies developed for other fields—such as those used
in conducting established and documented laboratory research techniques—to see
how they might improve a particular IVD product. In this issue of IVD Technology,
authors John Tonkinson, Dan Osborn, Brett Stillman, and Weiwen Zhao discuss how their company used this approach to some well-known technologies—and came up
with a new product. Their article, “Smaller Is Better” (p. 29), explores how they
combined the familiar formats of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and microarray technologies to develop microscale immunoassays.
IVD manufacturers are being challenged to find ways to continue investing in R&D and come up with new technologies. Taking a look at how to apply technologies
from other fields may be one way for companies to think outside the box.
Copyright ©2003 IVD Technology
