Inverness Medical Innovations, a point-of-care diagnostics company, made a splash with its $1.6 billion acquisition of Biosite. But the purchase was merely the latest step in a long-time strategy of growing through acquisition.

Scotlands ITI Life Sciences aims to create a unique model for plugging the widening funding gap between publicly funded research and venture-funded commercialization of technology. The firm's first four programs reflect the various ways it aims to drum up life sciences business in Scotland.

In recent years, some creative diagnostic companies have applied pharmaceutical-like marketing techniques to launches of their flagship products. Five-year-old Ischemia Technologies' launch strategy for its cardiac marker, ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) is based on tenets gleaned from these companies' success stories. It is supporting its marker of cardiac ischemia with strong clinical and market development programs, aimed not just at the laboratory but also at clinicians. But the inherent complexities and nuances of the opportunity it addresses are challenging.

The cardiac diagnostic marker field, dormant for years, is changing so rapiidly that studies done five years ago are out of date. Current markers are inreasingly significant in guiding treatment and a lot of promising new markers are in development. As new markers attract the interest of researchers and clinicians, their adoption is likely to be influenced by the history of troponins for detecting MI and the up-and-coming marker for heart failure, BNP. That's the message of E. Magnus Ohman, MD, chief of the division of cardiology at UNC, who spoke at the AACC's annual meeting in July.