PSS built a strikingly successful physician supply company in the 1980s and early 1990s through a combination of an aggressive, no-holds-barred approach to sales and a strategy that targeted solo practitioners and small physician groups. Everything was going swimmingly until the mid 1990s when the company fell prey to a series of bad breaks and a loss of coroprate focus that nearly drove it out of busines. Now, led by a new management team, the company is putting the pieces back together.

For more than a year, Dade Behring has been wading through a financial morass that is likely to lead to bankruptcy, a sale of assets, or a reorganization of capital structure. As concerns mount about its long-term prospects, Dade Behring and its lenders are seeking to restructure the company's burdensome long-term debt. While stubborn lenders have been unwilling to accept less than a near-to-full return on their investment, several events this spring seem to be motivating them to be more flexible.

Confused, like everyone else, in vitro diagnostics companies are evaluating the potential of the Internet to bring profound changes to their business. Having reacted slowly to the advent of e-business, they are just starting to venture forth with strategic planning initiatives led by high-level executives. But they have yet to decide with which portals to align.

{In Vivo} summarizes the technologies of several recently founded companies: Netherlands start-up [BioMaDe BV] will use nanotechnology to design and construct molecular devices for use in a variety of commercial applications. [DirectGene Inc.] is developing a tissue specific gene promoter technology for cancer gene therapy, based on the role of tumor-stromal interactions. [Esurg.com] will sell medical, surgical and pharmaceutical supplies and information to out-of-hospital healthcare providers. Founded in June 1999, [ImmunoGenec Biotechnologie GmbH] aims to develop, produce and market protein-based therapies for the immunotherapeutic treatment of certain cancers. [Quorex Pharmaceuticals Inc.] will discover anti-infectives using its discovery of a novel signaling pathway that occurs in wide variety of pathogenic bacteria. A joint venture of Rohm & Haas Co. and Argonex Inc, [RHeoGene LLC.] is developing enabling gene tools based on its proprietary Ecdyosyne Recepter-based gene switch system.