Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Jon Wood - Banc of America Securities.
Jon Wood - Banc of America Securities
First on BioPlex, I think Christine just disclosed 50 installations. is it safe to assume Quest was about half of that?
Norman Schwartz
Yes.
Jon Wood - Banc of America Securities
How many analytes do you have on that? It looks like you just got an approval. How many analytes do you have on the system currently?
Norman Schwartz
We’d say somewhere around 25. I don’t have the exact number. John, do you have an exact number?
John Goetz
Yes, that number is really close to mid-30s.
Norman Schwartz
Mid-30s, okay.
Jon Wood - Banc of America Securities
And could you just, at least qualitatively, talk about what you have on the docket for ?08 for that machine? Should we see that significantly, granted the FDA is uncooperative, should we see that number significantly increase in ?08?
Norman Schwartz
There will be a number of assays that we hope to introduce in ?08, again depending on the cooperation of the FDA. Again, I don’t have the exact number for you, but it should be pretty significant.
Jon Wood - Banc of America Securities
On the food testing opportunity, do you have an automated PCR system for the food testing market in the works?
Bradford C. Crutchfield
We do have a new platform for PCR out. We just introduced it, real-time basis. And it is compatible with automation front-end. So the answer would be yes. Although a majority of the laboratories right now are still able to operate in the 96-well format and certainly the through-put of the machine is more than ample to handle that. But it is an automatable machine with the front-end.
Jon Wood - Banc of America Securities
And can you just review the opportunity there, Brad? What do you view as the ultimate market opportunity for a molecular food-based modality?
Bradford C. Crutchfield
Well, I think really the key aspect is to move into fresh foods, and I think that we’re talking about testing. Traditional methods can take five to seven days, and most fresh food needs to ship before that. That’s why it necessitates recalls.
I think as more and more of the regulatory agencies and the industries get comfortable with a real-time test that gives them the sensitivity and the speed, you’re going to see more and more fresh food being tested in that 24-hour mark. So then a product can be quarantined prior to shipping. And I think at some point that’s going to start to set the standard in what the consumer is going to expect.
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