Much as its products detect bacteria and microbes in substances, GenPrime Inc. has pinpointed a number of U.S. and foreign markets to which it can apply its technologies.


Unlike some of the bacteria, markets targeted by the 7-year-old Spokane company are far from harmful. To the contrary, they represent opportunities for steady growth, says President and Chief Technology Officer Jim Fleming.


Fleming estimates that one of GenPrimes products, Prime Alert Biodetection/Threat Verification System, has $1 billion in market potential in the U.S. and almost twice that much internationally. With prospective profits from Prime Alert and another device GenPrime is developing, called the Bacterial Status system, or BacStat, the company likely will double its annual revenue next year and continue its strong sales growth during the next five years, he says.


He says the companys sales were up eightfold last year over 2002, though he declines to disclose GenPrimes annual revenue.


GenPrime, which occupies about 4,000 square feet of office space in the Holley Mason Building, at 157 S. Howard, develops rapid-detection devices for substances that might pose a potential biological threat, Fleming says. The company, which contracts mostly with businesses here to make its products, currently has 12 full-time employees and five part-time employees, about double its staff size last year, he says.


GenPrime recently appointed Johnny Humphreys, ex-CEO of Spokane-based Itron Inc., as chairman of the board and CEO of the company, Fleming says. GenPrime anticipates that Humphreys, who has served on the companys board of directors for several years, will bring wisdom and experience with growth technologies to GenPrimes administration, he says.


During the last several months, GenPrime also has raised nearly $1 million from local investors and plans to use that funding to boost its sales and marketing efforts, focusing on promoting Prime Alert and BacStat in particular, Fleming says.


GenPrime has sold about 100 Prime Alert units that so-called first responders, such as fire and emergency medical crews, are using now in the U.S. and overseas, and has secured a contract to sell the state of Washington 30 of those units, Fleming says. Though GenPrime has forged a number of agreements with other agencies that want to buy Prime Alert, the company hasnt received payments for all of those orders yet, he says.


Business is plugging along right now at a rate thats dependent on federal funding for states and local agencies, he says. Theyve made commitments to buy the products, so the money eventually is going to be there.


GenPrimes Prime Alert customers include the Spokane and Seattle fire departments, Fairchild Air Force Base, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, and the Defense Forces of Ireland, Fleming says. Homeland security regulations enacted by the U.S. government since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have sparked much interest in the device, he says.


Prime Alert screens powders for the presence of all bacteria of concern and toxins identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including anthrax, typhoid fever, and ricin, and detects those biological threats in five to 10 minutes, Fleming says. Each unit sells for about $8,500 and comes in a kit that includes a handheld reader, sampling tools, five disposable microbe-screen tests, and five disposable toxin-screen tests.


Fluorescent dye


Prime Alert detects microbes through a fluorescent-dye technology that GenPrime developed for its first product, called the Easy Count, Fleming says. That product, which GenPrime introduced in 2000, identifies and measures the activity of yeast in beer to maintain consistent fermentation during the brewing process.


In the Easy Count system, fluorescent dye inserted into the beer binds to and then is metabolized by yeast molecules, allowing laborers at a brewing plant to monitor the yeasts efficiency as the beer ferments, Fleming says.


In the Prime Alert system, the dye binds to microbes and causes a molecular shift, enabling first responders to determine the number of bacteria in a sample by measuring the level of those molecules with a fluorescent reader, he says.


GenPrime sells another product, called the Total Bacteria Analysis Kit (TBAK), that quantifies bacterial content in dairy products, he says.


Each Easy Count unit sells for about $5,500, and the TBAK sells for about $5,000, Fleming says. Both systems require disposable test kits, which sell for about $6 to $10 each, and the Prime Alert system calls for disposable kits that sell for $95 each, he says.


GenPrime is concentrating its sales efforts currently on Prime Alert and BacStat, which should be available in a year.


BacStat detects the presence of bacteria in liquids such as milk, water, blood, and beverages in about five minutes, Fleming says. The dipstick-like device analyzes the bacterial content in fluid at one end and displays the results on a screen at the other end, he says.


GenPrime estimates BacStat has more than a $100 million market potential in the U.S. for testing blood, but the device also shows promise in other markets, Fleming says.


GenPrime initially developed technology for the BacStat in a collaborative research project with Eastern Washington University, Fleming says. The company received a $121,000 grant from the Washington Technology Center in 2001 to help fund the products development. The company hasnt set a price for BacStat yet.


Development of BacStat corresponds with GenPrimes goal of developing and marketing rapid novel tests for the detection of any bacteria as opposed to specific bacteria, Fleming says.


In microbe testing, you just want to determine if something is contaminated, he says.


Though Prime Alert sales account for about 90 percent of GenPrimes revenue now, BacStat likely will make up 30 percent of sales, while the Prime Alert still will account for 60 percent of sales next year, Fleming says.


Besides BacStat, GenPrime is developing a product that screens milk for the presence of subclinical bovine mastitis, a disease that inflicts dairy cows and taints their byproducts, Fleming says. The company likely will introduce Mastitis Status system, or MaStat to the market within a year, he says.


Also, GenPrime is developing a variation of the Easy Count that can be used to measure the efficiency of yeast in ethanol fermentation, and is planning to integrate the Prime Alert technology with air-sampling equipment to create a tool for testing microbes and toxins in the air, Fleming says. The company is negotiating with potential partners, and likely will start developing that product in a year.


GenPrime has received two broad patents for its fluorescent-based technology that protects the Prime Alert and TBAK, and has patents pending for Easy Count, BacStat, and MaStat, he says.


While GenPrime plans to continue developing new products, the company is investing in marketing to generate revenue from Prime Alert, which it thinks provides a quick solution to some homeland-security concerns, Fleming says.


GenPrime has hired two sales representatives and might hire more, Fleming says.