These innovators are poised for rapid growth as the veterinary
care market reaches a staggering $18.26 billion this year
Over the last decade, the steep growth of the pet industry has made it one of the hottest investment opportunities on the market. According to a figure released by the APPA, an estimated 68% of U.S. households own pets. That’s 85 million families, a number that is expected to soar higher with each passing year.
You only need to see the inside of a veterinarian’s office to understand the scale of this fast-growing sector.
Tightly packed rooms and lengthy wait times are the norm for a vet visit. All to see a chronically tired vet who will diagnose an average of 200 dogs, cats, hamsters and bunnies per week[i]. To compound the blur, the patients can’t talk or explain their problem, so things go wrong every day. Diagnoses come too late. Problems get missed.
Meanwhile, despite hefty bills, vets often find themselves drowning in high overhead expenses. Things are so financially dire in the vet business that almost 60% of vets would not recommend getting into the profession! [ii]
But that is about to change…
Biomerieux, IDEXX Labs, and Lexagene are working on diagnostic solutions to improve pet care and the lives of the vets as well.
Three Contenders, Only One Leading the Charge
IDEXX Laboratories (Nasdaq: IDXX) is the top-selling brand in veterinary diagnostic devices[iii]. The company has excellent benchtop answers for analyzing blood chemistry, but for pathogens like E. coli or giardia, IDEXX prefers the consultant model. The vet sends a sample to be cultured, and three days to a week later a specialist gets back to them with results[iv].
Those may be old-fashioned gold-standard results, but we much prefer the newer approach of Biomerieux (Eurostock: BIM) and Lexagene (CN: LXG or OTC: LXXGF). Both of these companies are using PCR systems that quickly and accurately identify pathogens based on their genetic code. No waiting for a culture is required.
Biomerieux is a French company, and to invest in it requires going to the Eurostock exchange. Its US ADR shares rarely trade.
That’s just one reason we think investors should be following Lexagene (CN: LXG or OTC: LXXGF). We also think Lexagene has the most attractive proposition for vets looking for great quality, affordability, and accuracy.
The best news though, is that LXXGF should be a breakout stock this year. Accelerated by an injection of capital after closing a $5.7M financing deal, LexaGene just announced that it has entered into the beta stage of product development for its flagship pathogen detection system.
After years of testing and perfecting it, the LX-6 is almost ready to market and will be commercialized in 2019.
This device is truly rewriting the rules. The LX-6 delivers genetically-identified diagnoses even faster than Biomerieux systems. Lexagene’s LX-6 gives vets answers within 1 hour compared to 8-24 hours for the Biomerieux system.
What’s more, the LX-6 is accurate and extremely affordable. But that’s not the only advantage….
Veterinary medicine is a very high stress occupation, and LXG could aim straight at some of its most significant problems.
In addition to diagnosing pathogens quickly—which the LX-6 excels at—Lexagene can help vets keep their business healthy. The fact that most people don’t know how brutal the economics of veterinary medicine are.
Vet school cost about $25,000 more per year than medical school.[v] But vets earn less far less. A recent starting salary for vets was $65,000 compared to $170,000 for MDs. Vets also carry the highest debt-to-income loads in medicine[vi].
A vet practice is rarely a big moneymaker. The average sales come to about $340 per square foot, and staff costs are normally 50% of revenues or more. Even deep discount Walmart ($400 per square foot) does better, and an Apple store ($4000) is light years more profitable.[vii]
Those numbers are the reason vets are pressured to see a new pet every 15 minutes while on duty—200 different patients or more per week to cover costs.
Lexagene’s LX-6 Opens All New Possibilities for Vets
While most practices can identify worms in stool samples and take X-rays, vet practices have limited equipment on hand because of costs.
So they send samples out to labs, while the awaiting pet’s condition worsens.
This is why the Lexagene LX-6 is poised to be a lifesaver for vets as well as their patients when it goes commercial later this year:
- The LX-6 is highly affordable compared to any other system
- The LX-6 can rapidly pay for itself because of additional tests (and collected fees) conducted in house.
- ALL of the fees for diagnostic tests with the LX-6 stay in the practice, helping finances
- Supplies are very reasonably price, allowing for strong profit margins
- Test results come back within 1 hour
- The sales potential is enormous. Almost no vet practice has this kind of capability in house now.
- There are more than 71,000 private vet practices in the US alone[viii], and 65% of American households have pets. Customers want the kind of fast, accurate answer the LX-6 can give them.
- The LX-6 and Lexagene are new to market, but they are backed by years of research at prestigious institutions like Lawrence Livermore National Lab and Stanford University School of Medicine to incorporate cancer-sequencing technology into the LX-6 for medical diagnostics. And Texas A&M Veterinary School—one of the top 10 programs in the US[ix]—is testing the LX-6 for effectiveness in identifying pathogens in dog urine.
Look Where Else LexaGene Can Go
Water Quality—A $3.5 billion market
Locals check for e. coli, possibly giardia when there’s a question about our drinking and swimming water.
But they can easily miss other possibilities. In one short hour, LexaGene’s LX6 can check for 2 species of vibrio, 3 species of salmonella, 4 species of shigella, and 2 species of e. coli.
Food Safety –A $13.6 billion market
Demand for reliable food and water safety testing is at an all-time high. Reuters reports an alarming figure, “Roughly 48 million people, one in six U.S. residents, are sickened by tainted food each year and nearly 3,000 die.” Billions of dollars in lost revenue are at stake, as food producers and food chains fall victim to outbreaks of E. Coli, Salmonella, and other harmful pathogens.
Watch Lexagene Shares for a Breakout This Year
An absolute must have for veterinary professionals, the LX-6 could rapidly penetrate a market which is projected to be worth $18.26 billion this year. With Lexagene (CN: LXG or OTC: LXXGF) revving up to begin sales in the near term, it’s only a matter of time before the market takes notice.
Take a serious look at LexaGene today and stake your position early.
[i] http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=22536
[ii] http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=47603
[iii] https://www.fiercepharma.com/special-report/idexx-laboratories-top-10-animal-health-companies
[iv] https://www.idexx.com/en/veterinary/reference-laboratories/pathology/
[v] https://interactives.dallasnews.com/2018/stressful-lives-of-veterinarians/#slide24
[vi] https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/22/opinions/vet-debt-opinion-stokol/index.html
[vii] http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/deadly-middle-why-veterinary-practices-fee-structure-failing
[viii] https://www.avma.org/KB/Resources/Statistics/Pages/Market-research-statistics-US-veterinarians.aspx
[ix] https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-health-schools/veterinarian-rankings
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