annual Report 2009 - STRATEC Biomedical AG

10:08 10:20
Just one example of what happens day in, day out around the world. Blood tests
during pregnancy are just as routine as tests performed before people donate
blood, prior to surgeries, in case of accidents or for a health check at the doctor
or at the hospital.
Diagnostics has been transformed in recent years by the development of
new tests and innovations in the field of automation technology. Constantly
rising numbers of diagnostics tests mean that doctors, and thus also their
patients, have access to an ever wider selection of tests that, especially in the
field of molecular diagnostics, also enable patients to be diagnosed far more
specifically. Not so long ago, such diagnoses could only be made by performing
complicated tests that were sometimes also very unpleasant for patients.
Some types of tumor, for example, could only be detected in an advanced
stage by way of computer tomography or biopsies.
To ascertain whether a patient showed signs of bowel cancer, for example, it was
necessary to carry out a colonoscopy. Now, this can be replaced by blood-based
tests. It is the same story when it comes to detecting cervical cancer, which is
caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV). Here, doctors relied exclusively
on the Pap test. Combined with an HPV blood test, this now provides far more
precise results at a far earlier stage of the disease.
Alongside the benefits offered by earlier detection, these tests also allow far
more detailed diagnoses to be reached. Molecular diagnostic tests mostly show
not only whether the reaction to the virus was positive or negative, but also what
subtype of virus is involved. Together with the patient’s genetic information,
this often enables far more specific methods of treatment with correspondingly
higher chances of success to be identified. This personalized medical care
approach is still in an early, yet highly dynamic stage of development. It can be
expected to have a sustainable impact on healthcare in the coming decades.
These factors point to sustainable growth in the diagnostics market, as do
demographic developments in industrialized nations and the rapid progress
being made in building up healthcare systems in emerging economies. Ever
greater sections of the populations in many of these countries will then have
access to basic medical care.
As an innovative, autonomous system supplier, STRATEC is playing an important
role in these developments on behalf of virtually all major market players. By
making further investments and taking on new, challenging projects, we aim to
continue to play a shaping role in developing reliable, user-friendly automation
technology for in-vitro diagnostics applications.