Thursday, November 15, 2007

Thanks to Johnson and Johnson, Independence Technology, and Jerry

Dean Kamen and the team at DEKA designed the iBOT. Knowing
they didn't have the resources to put it into production, as
well as do sales and service, they took it to Johnson and
Johnson, the world's largest medical products company.
Believing in the product and believing that people needed
it, Johnson and Johnson agreed to take it on. A division
of Johnson and Johnson was created, called Independence
Technology (IT).

The above information I obtained over the internet. The
rest of this is my opinion. I think that when J&J took
it on, they thought that insurance companies would at
least help cover the cost of the iBOT. Because most
insurance companies are not covering the cost, only about
400 iBOTs are currently in use. Let's say 200 iBOTs
were sold at the original price of approx. $30,000, and
200 iBOTs were sold at approx. $25,000. That would
generate $11 million. Between production costs, staff,
sales, etc, they must be losing money. My biggest fear
is that they'll go out of business. And another bad
thing about that is that they have no competition. There
are no companies wanting to start their own amazing
wheelchair yet money losing business.

But I digress. What I want to say is thank you to
Johnson and Johnson for taking on this project. And
thank you to IT for continuing with their wonderful
support, even though they must be losing money.

Thank you also to Jerry. Jerry is the representative
who showed me the iBOT, answered my questions, and
helped me get my iBOT. Thanks Jerry!

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