Team:Mingdao/Entrepreneurship

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Overview

Since we have the idea of our project, our team has begun to think about how to put our products on the market to compete with others. First, we made a SWOT analysis and comparison with other existing screening methods to make our device stand out. Second, we wrote a proposal to business owners, academic organizations, and related non-profit associations to seek for sponsorship and advice. For example, the boss of the syringe company analyzed the advantages of our products might have in the market, and he said we can connect with him if we have any problems in the future. During the telephone interview, we asked how to apply for a patent. When visiting experts and scholars, they told us what we can apply our project to after this experiment. Through these activities, we have made our products more distinctive and more comparable to other products on the market.

SPONSORS for FUNDING or TECHNICAL SUPPORTS

SWOT ANALYSIS

We analyzed our product in strength, weakness, opportunity and threat.

COMPARISON OF PATHOGEN TESTING METHODS



PROPOSAL

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SYRINGE MANUFACTURE COMPANY


Address: No.88, Ln. 270, Sec. 2, Xinan Rd., Wuri Dist., Taichung City 41466, Taiwan (R.O.C.).
Website: http://www.medical-part.com/
Expertise: The company is specialized in medical appliances such as needles, syringes, etc.
Interview: Mr. Ching-Kuei Lin (CEO)

Since the mosquitoes are able to suck blood and are 100% biodegradable, maybe we can reduce usage of needles for blood drawing and the related testing. We contacted a needle manufacture company which professionally produces a lot of kinds of common and special needles. We interviewed the company's CEO Mr. Ching-Kuei Lin, and he is willing to help us to improve our prototype design.

The CEO of the company treated us really nice, and we surprisingly found that his daughter and her family live in south Africa for a long period. He shared many stories of his grandchildren's school, the environment there, and the stereotypes that we have when we don't deeply understand them. He displayed different kinds of needles his company designed and produced, and told us the types of needles suitable and commonly used in the undeveloped country.

Three kinds of most common syringes in the market:
(1) AD (Auto-Disable) Syringe: This kind of syringe will be destroyed after usage. One of the drawbacks of this kind is that it can't protect health workers who use it. Recently, it applies to be used in developing countries.
(2) Disposable Syringe: Disposable syringes should not be reused. However, many people use the syringe more than one time. This kind of syringes are unsafe. It may be used by Drug users.
(3) Safety Syringe: It's used in developed country. lt is composed of two parts. One is the Cover-type, and the other is Indented. This kind of syringes can protect health workers.

We presented him what we designed in our project, especially the comparison of other blood testing methods. After discussing few questions, he said he’s really impressed by our project, and gave us few tips of marketing our product. In the end, we asked him why he was willing to spend few hours chatting with students, and he said, " Only the CEO with vision knew the importance of inheritance, above all, I feel younger talking with high school students!"

Our interview ended in leisure atmosphere, Mr. Lin also agreed that we put the company logo on our website to express his support and encouragement.

Below are the questions asked by our members and the replies from the CEO:

Q1: What is your most recommended syringe in poor areas?
A1: It sounds feasible when I first heard about your project. If you can extend the application to other diseases such as hepatitis, you can expand the market in developed countries. Finally, we started chatting about the biotechnology. By the way, there are three kinds of syringes commonly used nowadays.

Q2. How to recycle the syringe?
A2: Originally, hospitals will use grinder to destroy the syringe, and mix with the plastic parts. It’s not common that they will recycle it because the mixture is made out of different material, and it can’t be used.

Q3. We aim to solve the problems relating to recyclable or degradable needles. lf we can solve the problem by natural methods, will we be successful in the market of blood drawing and testing assays?
A3. Probably, I like your ideas and hope to see your products in the market someday.

Reflection: We felt his passion and commitment running the syringe manufacture company. We’re encouraged with a need to develop an alternative to replace plastic syringes and unrecyclable needles. Maybe our mosquito syringe and testing concept will come true in the future.

TELEPHONE INTERVIEW



To improve our ideas of how to make our product competitive, we contacted with several biotech related companies and asked them several questions about startup cost, patent application and product marketing. The boss of Catch Gene has a lot of patience. After describing our project, we asked him how to apply the patent. He advised us to focus on spreading our ideas through speech or the competition, since applying patents is complicated and challenging which need time and effort to acquire. Meanwhile, we have to convince biotech companies that our product is useful, safe and well-designed. The boss of BioFuture questioned us whether the manufacture and marketing cost are affordable before the product can be sold on the market. In addition, the boss of Geneaid passionately talk about how our project can apply to every aspect in the future and how to start up a company through funding and business plan.