I'm gonna show you the market segmentation that we've done for this problem of small
bowel obstruction.
We start with the biggest possible group, which is just all patients who have a small
bowel obstruction.
The next way we break this down is by what we believe is the source of these small bowel
obstructions.
And by far, the biggest group is people who have intra-abdominal adhesions.
We can further segment that by people who have had a prior abdominal surgery, and who
have not had a prior abdominal surgery.
And this you see is sorta the biggest, most obvious group among, so we're gonna focus
on that.
And among that group, the way that people are eventually treated, it's a split between
either operative, or non-operative.
This is a question of whether or not someone eventually gets a surgery to help treat this
problem.
And we can segment that group a couple different ways, both by the people who eventually treat
them, or who are most responsible for their treatment, potentially an internist or surgeons.
And that is true for both people who get surgeries and don't get surgeries can be treated by
a surgeon.
And we can also split that up by who's insuring these people, or who eventually pays for the
treatment.
And so if we sort of break that down, you can see the biggest group, all patients who
have a small bowel obstruction, about 340,000 patients per year in the United States.
Those who are adhesive-related, 251,000, and the majority of those are people who have
had a prior abdominal surgery, about 225,000.
And so we can continue to break that down, but we believe that sort of largest, most
homogenous, the biggest group is this group right here, 225,000 patients a year who've
had a prior abdominal surgery.
And so we're gonna focus on those for potential solutions.
when we look at those numbers and just sort of how this translates to cost and the money
that's flowing in the system, again, we had 340,000 people a year who have a small bowel
obstruction not related to a hernia.
And the total cost for those are about $3.7 billion.
When we bring that down to just those who have this as the result of an adhesion, the
total spending for that is about $2.4 billion a year.
The majority of that spending is done with patients who are treated with a surgery, and
the total cost for that is about $1.9 billion a year.
you start with this big general population that's relatively heterogeneous.
And then you apply these different – you find these segments that make it more homogenous,
and in that sense, easier to target as a market, or easier to develop a solution for that particular
segment, but then limits are applied depending on the size.
So what we did was segmented completely, as thoroughly as we could, and then went up and
down the scope to find the middle ground that really balanced the homogeneity and then market
size.
don't just try to have this huge number so that it looks good and kinda cook the books.
You gotta be realistic.
And people will nail you and ask about every little detail.
Wanna know where it's from and why you took that percentage of this or – so be honest
and you want this to be accurate 'cause you want to make the correct decision on whether
this is something worth going forward with.
I would also be recommend being very transparent about which dollar figures you're using, whether
they represent hospital charge or actually what gets paid on a reimbursement or the cost.
Because it can be dramatically different numbers.
Also, when you're presenting the market analysis, just say up front what your limitations are,
or what your assumptions are so that other people don't point them out to you, so you
can be up front and say, "Hey, we've done this great analysis, but here are what the
limitations are."