Lifestream of Post Falls, ID looks poised to recover from rough 2004

As Baby Boomers age and health-care emphasis moves toward prevention rather than treatment of disease, Lifestream Technologies Inc. http://www.lifestreamtech.com/ could be positioned for a turnaround after what can only be described as a rough year.

http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2004/11/27/business/bus01.txt

In spite of market reports recommending the company to investors, a famous spokesman in radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, presence in major drug store chains and the Home Shopping Network, and triple-digit sales increases, the company has seen a year of falling stock and operating losses.

Christopher Maus, who founded the company to manufacture home cholesterol monitors 10 years ago, is confident that will all change in the coming year.

"Shipments are up, and revenues are up 40 percent for the quarter," Maus said.

Lifestream announced this week it settled a patent lawsuit against Polymer Technology Systems Inc. As part of the settlement, Polymer agreed to make royalty payments to Lifestream for future sale of products incorporating Lifestream’s patent. Lifestream said a test strip being marketed by Polymer that performed measurements of HDL cholesterol infringed a patent owned by Lifestream.

"We have entered into a settlement agreement allowing Polymer to use Lifestream’s HDL patent for the term of that patent, as well as allowing Lifestream to protect the benefits of the HDL patent, which include future licensing rights," Maus said.

On Nov. 15 Lifestream received a $1.5 million increase in its term note, to be funded over the next two months, avoiding thinning what’s already considered a diluted stock, with more than 100 million shares outstanding.

The company was also ranked this month number 40 on the 2004 Deloitte Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology companies in North America. Rankings are based on a percentage of revenue growth over five years from 1999 to 2003. Lifestream’s revenues grew 6,846 percent during the period.

Shipments of the Lifestream three-minute cholesterol tester were up 124 percent in August over the same period in 2003, and 169 percent in July. August sales were more than $429,000 and $581,486 shipped in July.

Maus believes $800 billion a year could be saved in health-care costs by lowering cholesterol, better control of blood pressure and body fat, and smoking cessation. He expects as Boomers enter the Medicare system, the relatively inexpensive units ($99-$119) will gain in popularity.

Lifestream already has its product in up to 25,000 stores in the country’s four major drug store chains, including Walgreens and Rite-Aid.

Maus believes an over-the-counter version of Mevacor, a cholesterol-lowering statin drug, will be approved within a year. That will require a mechanism, such as Lifestream’s tester, to monitor cholesterol levels.

That means a large pool of potential customers.

"There are 20 million people on cholesterol drugs," Maus said.