PBIO: "Eating your own dog food could save your life" - Analyst Blog

Grant Zeng, CFA

PBIO: “Eating your own dog food could save your life”

The story
On March 28, 2011, the Venture Development Center, Boston’s leading startup incubator for technology and life science companies, published a very interesting article about the unique business model of Pressure BioSciences, Inc. (PBIO). The article was entitled “Eating your own dog food could save your life.”
In short, the article told a story like this. A scientist took a walk in the woods one day and found a tick on his arm three days later. The tick was removed and a rash was developed. Then the scientist brought the tick to his lab and asked that it be tested for the DNA of the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease.
In preparation for the testing, the tick was initially processed by the company’s newly developed SG3, a device that is developed to improve the safety, speed, and accuracy of processing difficult samples from tough, fibrous, and other difficult-to-disrupt tissues and organisms, such as ticks. The shredded tick was further processed by the company’s pressure cycling technology platform, and then tested for the presence of B. burgdoreri DNA. The tick was determined to be potentially infectious.
An expert in the area of Lyme disease confirmed the infection of the scientist by the bacteria causing Lyme disease. The scientist sought medical attention based on the evidence he had obtained. Because he acted quickly, using tools that his own lab had developed, and sought advice and treatment, the scientist is not expected to develop Lyme disease.

What does the story mean for Pressure Bioscience Inc.?

The story vividly illustrated how PBIO’s unique business model works. If a company uses its own products for day to day operations, which was described by the article as eating its own dog food, this sends a strong message that it considers its own products the best on the market.
PBIO is a company just like this. The Company has developed a unique platform technology: pressure cycling technology (PCT) and related equipments and products, for the sample preparation market. Scientists around the world routinely extract bio-molecules from a diverse range of biological samples using a variety of extraction methods. Some methods are labor-intensive, time consuming, and expensive; others engender safety and quality concerns; and still others lack the versatility required for today’s cutting-edge research laboratory. Data so for have demonstrated that the PBIO’s PCT platform technology and related equipments/products offer many advantages such as greater safety, flexibility, quality, and speed than the currently used methods.
PBIO has been marking every effort to develop new products for the biology research market and has made great progress. The Company has launched quite a few new systems and products recently such as the mitochondrial kits, focused on the isolation of mitochondria from solid tissues, such as skeletal muscle and lung, and the SHREDDER SG3 system, developed in conjunction with the mitochondrial kits, to allow for a safe, rapid, efficient, and standardized method to isolate mitochondria from human and animal cells.
We think PBIO has all the makings of success. With many advantages, PBIO’s PCT platform and related products will be recognized and used by more scientists and researchers worldwide. As a result, the Company’s top line will be further boosted in the coming years.

We have been, and continue to be, optimistic about PBIO. The Company’s strong fundamentals and management’s strong commitment make us believe it is poised to grow rapidly and deliver shareholder value.

We have an Outperform rating on the Company’s shares with a price target of $5.

For a free copy of the full research report, please email scr@zacks.com with PBIO as the subject.

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