By Jeff Karoub
Small Times Staff Writer
HANNOVER, Germany, April 22, 2002 — With its microsystems-based inhalers, handheld jaundice detectors and credit-card-sized instant blood and drug tests, STEAG microParts’ technology might seem tailor made for life science.
That’s the case today, but a decade ago the firm poured similar technology and resources into separating uranium for the atomic energy industry.
“The political landscape changed, and there was no longer an interest in the atomic industry; it was a special technology for a special purpose, and there was no longer a demand for it,” said Andreas Decker, a sales and marketing representative for STEAG, which was founded in 1990. “We had this technology there and didn’t know what to do with it.”
It’s certainly not a typical entrance into the life science industry, but microsystems firms and industry specialists exhibiting at last week’s Hannover Fair say that succeeding in the increasingly crowded field requires finding not only a niche, but often a new approach to business.
“Before, it was technology driven; now it’s marketing driven,” said Uwe Kleinkes, managing director of IVAM, a European microsystems trade association.
“The research needs to be on markets, knowledge — what your customers want to have.”
STEAG’s devices include a variety of handheld and portable biomedical instruments, including the SpectRx Bilicheck, which measures bilirubin levels in newborns to check for jaundice, and identaColor II, which measures and evaluates tooth shade.
The company also is in clinical trials with its Respimat aerosol inhaler, which has a micropump that processes liquid through a micronozzle and delivers precise doses of drugs. The concept has been proven, and STEAG expects that it will be commercially available by the middle of next year.
All three were developed in conjunction with other companies: SpectRx Inc. for the bilirubin check, IDENTA AS for the tooth shade evaluator and Boehringer Ingelheim for the inhaler.
STEAG’s involvement in particular products varies. It has produced complete devices or provided parts to other firms, but one aspect remains the same: All work is done in close cooperation with the customers.
“Now, the customer is not interested in the technology inside. The product must work and the price must be correct,” Decker said. “The customer finds specific market niches and wants to get into it. A device is specially constructed to serve his needs.
“Customers give specifications — not … the manufacturer.”
Kleinkes said paying less attention to the technology and more to the market is hard for those developers who spun their business out of a university. In that setting, he said, all the money and time went into developing a prototype.
“Costs don’t matter for a university,” he said. “But if you start a business, it changes dramatically.”
The solution for many smaller companies is to work together more closely than businesses traditionally have.
“A year ago, there was no real successful business model in microstructure technologies,” said Frank Bartels, managing director of Bartels Mikrotechnik GmbH. “We said, ‘Let’s work together, give strength to each other.’ … Everybody can offer his customers better support.”
The result was a group dubbed Going Micro, a partnership that includes Bartels Mikrotechnik as well as German microsystems firms Mikroglas and Mildendo GmbH.
Bartels said each firm works on different parts of a piece of life science technology. But because of their sizes, none of the three makes an entire product.
“We are all companies between 10 and 20 persons — it is not possible to … make the total development and production process,” he said. “But together, we can do it a more flexible way,” he said.
The three have shared ideas and jointly solved technological problems in the laboratory. For instance, Bartels developed a special device for filtering, which can be used in the polymeric materials his company uses or the microreaction chambers for customers of Mikroglas.
“Together, we were able to improve these concepts and … each company can use the solution in their own markets,” he said.
Bartels said he believes that partnerships offer firm grounding for small firms, as more and more move into the life science market and create instability.
“The effect will be companies … are better developed,” he said. “Last year, we hadn’t had a good income but this year has been much better.”
Strong, successful European life science concerns also can benefit small startups on the other side of the Atlantic.
Michele Migliuolo, president and chief executive of Pennsylvania-based medical MEMS device maker Verimetra Inc., exhibited at Hannover and has talked to several European companies. One in particular caught his attention and might become a partner down the road.
“They are working on microrobotic surgery applications — that matches our general interest,” he said. “That alone means I have to be speaking with these people.”
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