Jag-this,

I have given considerable thought to the manufacturing risks associated with the beads; as you rightly note, if the beads are unable to be scaled to a commercially viable lot size then CGNH has IMO a very dim future. However, research on this manufacturing issue has convinced me that scaling the batches to a vialble commercial size is within the reach of all of the current bead manufacturers.

I am more concerned that Merck's current customers may have declined to support CGNH's silver coated beads. I would welcome an announcement from CGNH that clarifies this issue; if the two recently announced MTA's morph into a license agreement and a supply agreement then I think we will by inference know the answer to scale-ability and customer acceptance of the beads.

Ante