Activity

Prentiss Jones - September 30 VIEW RECORDING: https://fathom.video/share/LXtfMhapsx_mNUmu5BxDAmh28wGw5w2j Introductions and small talk @ 0:00 The meeting began with Raleigh and Prentiss catching up on personal matters, including Prentiss's daughter graduating with a doctorate degree. They also discussed differences in traffic and commute times between California and Prentiss's location. Volatile organic compound controls @ 4:00 Prentiss inquired about UTAK's offerings for multi-level volatile organic compound controls, including methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, and others. Kevin explained that while they don't have pre-made multi-level volatile controls, they can create custom controls at different concentration levels to meet Prentiss's needs. Lead controls @ 7:46 Prentiss also asked about UTAK's blood lead controls, and Kevin confirmed they have stock products as well as the ability to create custom lead controls. Novel psychoactive substance controls @ 9:00 Prentiss inquired about UTAK's offerings for comprehensive drug controls, particularly for fentanyl and other novel psychoactive substances. Kevin indicated they have some stock products in this area and can also create custom controls as needed. Biochemistry controls @ 11:14 Prentiss expressed interest in UTAK's biochemistry controls, and Kevin explained they don't have as much experience in that area but can work with Prentiss to understand his specific needs and see what custom options may be available. Pricing and turnaround time @ 18:49 Prentiss asked about UTAK's pricing model for custom controls and their typical turnaround time. Kevin and Raleigh explained they have improved lead times significantly and can often ship stock products same-day or custom products within 15-20 business days. Recap and next steps @ 24:53 The meeting concluded with Prentiss indicating he would review UTAK's online catalog and reach out to Raleigh for any follow-up needs, including potentially placing an order or discussing custom control options. Prentiss Jones - September 30 VIEW RECORDING - 26 mins (No highlights): https://fathom.video/share/LXtfMhapsx_mNUmu5BxDAmh28wGw5w2j --- 0:04 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Oh, I'm having problems hearing you. I'm doing well. How are you? Good. I'm doing well. I don't know if you remember me from that. I actually just chatted with Sarah Toma yesterday, too, and she's like already geared up for 2026. Great. How are you doing? How's your week been? It's been good so far. 0:30 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) It's early yet. 0:31 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) They're still time. That's true. Yeah. It's like we talk about when we're driving in Southern California, like in L.A., we don't want to mention traffic because then traffic is going to come. So we don't want to say the day is going to be busy. So, you know what? 0:49 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) I was in California in July. I'll tell you what. I appreciate my rush hour here. right now. I'll tell Okay. Thank you. Rush Hour is like 15 minutes. 1:03 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Oh, man. That's like our commute to the grocery store is 15 minutes. Yeah. That's so funny. Were you out here for work? 1:14 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) So I went to a graduation. Are you familiar with APU, Azusa Pacific? Yes. Yeah. 1:24 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Yeah. Yeah. 1:26 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) Nice. That's awesome. 1:28 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Was it a friend, family member? That's my daughter. I'm sorry. What was that? My daughter. Oh, your daughter. Oh, congrats. Oh, my gosh. That's huge. What did she study? 1:43 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) Well, she actually finished up her doctorate. Whoa. Whoa. 1:52 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Oh, my goodness. 1:54 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) She's of those kids who, you know, have worked hard all her life. Yeah. You know, from undergrad to master's, and then she wanted to do the doctorate. Good on her. Because she was paying for it this time. 2:14 - Kevin Kopp That's always good. Yes. 2:16 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) But she's going to be set up. So, I mean, that's no small feat. So I'm sure she'll find something. And plus, I know for me, when I've taken out loans for my undergrad degree, it's like I had no concept as an 18-year-old of what money was. So at least she's more mature and finished her doctorate and has better chances, too. Too funny. Awesome. Hey, Kevin, well, nice shirt. Kevin and I are matching today, actually. So I wanted to introduce Kevin. So Kevin is a long time UTAC steward. I don't know if both of your or Thank paths have crossed. I know we've been working with you and your team, or at least we have been for quite some time, but Kevin's our COO. He's been here for 20 plus years, and so was just kind of keen to join the call. And yeah, I'm Raleigh. I know we met earlier this year based out of closer to Los Angeles or our Santa Clarita location. But yeah, really excited that we get the chance to connect today too. And I know I actually spoke with Paul recently, and I know he mentioned that like your like only clinical client departed. And so there's no need for like commercial clinical controls, but we're always keen to hear, you know, how it is that, you know, we did when you were working with us. And we're always open to, you know, supporting, even if that's like information, even if we're not working directly with one another too. But I don't know, you know, kind of what your hopes for the call today were. 4:00 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) Yeah, well, I, of course, I've, I've, I think I spoke with you at Matt about volatiles, what you had as far as volatile controls, and it's my understanding that you do have something, but I was looking at multi-levels, right? And I don't know that you, can't remember, I don't think you had multi-levels for the volatile controls. And by volatiles, I mean, methanol, ethanol, isotone, and isopropanol, all in one blood or serum matrix. 4:37 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Yeah, Kevin, I don't know if you're able to support and speak to that, just in terms of your knowledge of our volatiles. 4:47 - Kevin Kopp Yeah, so we don't have multi-level volatile stock controls, but that is definitely an option for a custom control, depending on which matrix you want. We do it with all. With blood and serum, even seen some different types of controls outside of those matrices, but it's definitely something we offer on a custom site. What levels do you generally need? Do you need like a 20 and then an 80 and a 150 or something like that? 5:15 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) Yeah, like a 150 and an 80, that would be... 5:23 - Kevin Kopp Yeah, that's typical from like what we see some of our customers do that need different levels than the stocks. Because generally, the stocks I think are normally around 150, but we don't offer a lower one. But we can make you... We can either make you, you know, two custom batches, or we can... If you like the stock level for like your high side, and then you want to do maybe a custom for a little low, we can kind of mix and match. If you want them to kind of be aligned in terms of part numbers, and, you know, kind of be similar, then I would just recommend two custom batches. One... Not at the higher range, one at a lower. Okay. 6:04 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) Well, I'm thinking, too, what I might want to do, because 150, are you talking about the concentration of ethanol, or is it across all four? 6:13 - Kevin Kopp So, yeah, I know that they kind of mix and match, I think, ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, like the glycols I've seen at like 150, and then maybe acetone a little lower. I can't remember off the top of my head, but I know that sometimes that some of the analytes, they're not all the same concentration. So that's why we don't – generally, if you ever look at our products and you see like a concentration in the name, normally that means that a majority of the analytes of interest inside that panel are going to be that concentration. There's a couple instances where that's not always true. We don't have volatiles. It's just called like our volatiles control. We don't offer – we don't say like, oh, 150-ish, but when you look at it You know, three of the five are at $150 and the other two are somewhere else. 7:05 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) But you do have something just off the shelf. I wouldn't have to go custom. If I just was with one level, I could just get something off the shelf, right? That is correct, yeah. 7:16 - Kevin Kopp And that's where you could like mix and match where you could say, oh, I want to use this stock product as like a higher level and maybe have us do a lower level for you if that's of interest. Okay, okay. 7:30 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) So I'll have to, I'm going to ask that you would, either you or Raleigh would send me a catalog or something. I'll be able to place an order on some of this. So I'll need to see that. 7:44 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Yeah. 7:46 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) It's one thing. The other thing was, do you have anything as far as lead, either blood lead, blood lead, or do you have any lead controls? Yeah, similar to the volatiles. 8:00 - Kevin Kopp We do have, again, we have stock products that have whole blood lead. We also can make it as a stock, a custom if you are looking for that. I was just going to go ahead and drop, and I can also send this to you as well, but I was going to drop kind of like our website catalog here for you. Let me get to the, I don't know if you've taken a look at that online or? No, not recently. 8:22 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) It's been quite a while. Yeah. 8:25 - Kevin Kopp I'm going to just find the link and I'll drop it in the chat for you and you can, you know, you can take a look at that. And I'll also, you know, that way you also have either Raleigh or I send it over directly. 8:41 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) Okay. Okay. So that's, that's the volatose and that's the lead. And the lead is in, that's blood or is, right? The matrix for lead? Yeah. Yeah, that's in blood. Okay, fantastic. The other thing I would, do you have anything like a, know, Comprehensive control for any of the novel psychoactive, like for fentanyl or maybe any of the other drugs you have, like, maybe a drug, not drug of abuse, but really like a drug, comprehensive drug control of any sort? 9:21 - Kevin Kopp So we have a couple different, again, a couple different stock products that are available, that have, you know, some things, like pain management, controls. Okay. I don't know if we still offer the fentanyl analogs. We used to have a stock. I think we might have one. We had two at one point. Let me just double check. Yeah, think we still have them. 9:51 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Kevin, looks like, in urine and whole blood. Oh, great. 9:56 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) Yeah. 9:59 - Kevin Kopp If we... Do, again, a lot of what we offer or what you don't see on the website, you can definitely send over a request and we can look into making a custom. We do a lot of fentanyl. Specifically, we do a lot of fentanyl in custom products. Are you looking for urine or blood? Blood. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you cycle active, right? Yes. We have a hallucinogens control that we used to make. I don't know if we make both of them now. But yeah, there's definitely options. Again, in that link, you can kind of poke around. The first one I sent is the volatiles specifically, and then the second one I kind of tagged it as lead. But you can go ahead and check around with the filters and play around. You can look for it. You know, if you're looking for just blood, you should be able to filter out. out. Filter down to just whole blood, and then you can kind of poke around to see what we have in terms of that. And then again, as I stated, there's always the custom option. Okay, okay. 11:14 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) Now let's go, let's, let's step out of the world of toxicology and look at the bio, area of biochemistry. Do you offer any biochemistry type controls? In fact, I'm more, I'm really interested in your cell. 11:31 - Kevin Kopp That one is probably going to be a little bit different for us. don't, generally we don't do a lot of that stuff, but from time to time we have done some. So again, I would probably lean on my engineering department. And, you know, if you sent over like a list of biochemistry controls that you were looking to have, we might be able to still filter through that and say which ones we would be, you know, oh, we've done, we've actually worked with these compounds, but we haven't worked with these. Okay. 12:00 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) Okay. Okay. And who would I send that to? Would I send that to you or to Raleigh, or how would I send that? Yeah, and you can send that to Raleigh. 12:11 - Kevin Kopp You can always send it to me. I mean, I'm always helpful, here to help. We'll end up forwarding it to our engineering department, and we have like a little bit of a template, Raleigh, right? I think for this specific, right, the template would be good for us to send to you. So let us go ahead and send a template of what we would ask for generally, what we would ask our customers to fill out so that, you know, we can get you the most information right away versus having to do a lot of back and forth, which we've seen in the past is, you know, someone sends us a list and goes like, hey, we can do all this. And then the question is like, well, what matrix are you looking for? What concentrations? You know, sometimes we even need CAS numbers. That really, really helps. If you have like different forms of certain drugs, I don't know if that's something that we need to be worried about with the biochemistry stuff. But we see that from time to time with the drugs abuse, so. Okay. Great. 13:07 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) That would be very helpful. Awesome. 13:11 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Yeah, I'll send that to you afterwards. And I also have some PDF catalogs if that interface is going to be easier for LEDs and volatiles. So while I'm sending you the email, I'll include those as well. Okay. 13:26 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) Have you all ventured out beyond controls? Like, are you doing any analytical columns or anything like that? Are you strictly still with controls? 13:38 - Kevin Kopp So we do strictly, like, QC material. So I would say, you know, controls, we've done some custom calibrators for some people. From time to time, people have asked us to make deuterated standards or standard solution material. I would say, like, with varying degrees of success, depending on... What it is, we've done that, but columns, no, nothing like that. 14:09 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) So how does one go about, how is the price determined on a custom? Is it per, I would guess it's very variable. Yeah, it can be. 14:23 - Kevin Kopp It generally will depend on the analytes of interest, concentration, and volume. So those are generally the three main factors. So if we're looking for a lot of analytes at high concentrations, yeah, that's going to be a little bit of a endeavor, right? But if we're like doing simple panels at normal concentrations, and you even have like multiple levels, those are things that really work in your favor. So if you do one level versus like three or four, right, the total might be a little bit more for The four, of course, but we're going to get you some discounts inside there because we can use the same material and the same compounds to go ahead and make all four levels. Okay. I think a question I would ask for you is the value of the QC material, right? Like, what's the value for you, right? Is it the fact that, you know, you have that kind of backing of a third party making the control? Is it something to the effect of, you know, you can have your manpower or resources being focused on other activities and other tasks so that they don't have to worry about making it? What's the value for the third party QC? 15:47 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) And so, so what's for us a major value is the fact that we typically want something QC material. Or that's outside of our standards or calibrators. So just having a quality control material that we can use, well, for controls. And so we have a different set of standards where we prepare, if we prepare in-house calibrator, and then we have a reference source. So it's like a verification of what we've done. So that's a big value to us. And then being able to not have to store it and be able to put in a call and get what we need. So that's important, too, because then we have to manage a lot of other things if we're trying to do it all. So that's convenience, I would say, for us. Awesome. 16:50 - Kevin Kopp Yeah, I think, too, one of the things that I would bring up in terms of, like, reference values. So our stock products will generally come with a reference value on the IFU. you. you. go. So that is the third-party lab has tested that material. It's not to say that your result will come out to be that reference value, right? It is more just the point of inference to say, hey, we've made this, we have sent it out to a third party, they have verified, or not verified, but they've ran it, and they came back with these results. So you should be, you know, should be within a range of that reference value and target value. We don't offer that as an out-of-the-box for the customs, but we can add that on. It is a little bit more pricey, and I'm going to be fair with you, because we have to send it out, and generally it's like a specific, we don't get those economies of scale, right? When we do the stock levels, we can kind of absorb that cost as much as we can. On the customs, it's a little bit more painful. But if that's important to you, what we also could do is we could send it to you beforehand. Mm-hmm. Excuse me, we will make the product, we'll send it to you, and then you can say, yeah, this is working where we would expect it to work, and then we would send you the rest of the material. So that way, you know, if there's any issues, we can either remake it or tweak it to make sure that it gets to where you need to be. 18:19 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) Yeah, for us having a target concentration is, for us, would just be a guide because then we would establish our own. range is based on doing multiple assays at different times, different days, so that would be a problem for us. 18:46 - Kevin Kopp What other questions do you have for us, Prentiss? 18:49 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) So, generally, how long is it, what's the turnaround time for, if I were to place an order after chef order? How long can I, how long? How long does that take to get in-house? 19:06 - Kevin Kopp It can. 19:08 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) So we're able to even ship same day if it is a stock product as quickly as same day. It also, of course, depends on, you know, if it's a particular form, you know, what preferred day that you would have, for example, if something's frozen too, for your need by date. So we've, Kevin and his team actually have significantly pulled forward our lead times. So we're able to get those out more quickly than we have historically. 19:37 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) And for me, that's important because oftentimes I'll get a call from the state or someone that will say, hey, we've got X amount of dollars. Do you want it? And I'll say, yeah. They'll say the catch is you've got to use it within 60 days. And for us, I can't, if I order today. And it comes in on day 61, then I'm in the doghouse because now that has to come out of the school. Right? They don't consider it unless until it's on the docks, they don't care that I've ordered it. It needs to be within it needs to be here within that time frame. So I was just wanting to know because that happens quite often. I mean, there isn't a year that that doesn't happen. It happened recently. And, you know, I just need to know how, you know, if I gave like a 30-day, you know, and I tell you guys up front, hey, this is what I'm working with. Are you generally able to keep up with it? 20:46 - Kevin Kopp Yeah, I would say right now, absolutely. Previously, I know in 2022, 2023, and even in the 2024 bit, we were having some issues with certain products, specifically stocks. And even our customs, we were really far behind on. We implemented a new manufacturing flow, and we've been able to, like, double to almost triple our capacity, which has kind of made things move through a little bit faster. So even our custom products are moving at about an eight-day business day clip. So even our customs are coming down really quickly. So, I mean, there are issues with supply chain, right? So that would be something that we would want to be mindful if there's, like, a new analyte of interest that you're trying to order through us that we've never ordered and we might be having trouble getting it, right? That's something we'd want to keep our eyes on. But if it's our kind of stuff that we normally order and normally have in stock anyway, I would say that within 15 to 20 business days, you should have our customs and our stocks. It should be within, you know, one to three business days, you should have it on your door. Yeah, and generally, that's what I would be asking for. 21:59 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) What do you have on this? Yeah, for what's available that I can get quick and in a hurry. So, yeah. Yeah. 22:06 - Kevin Kopp And this really comes down to if we're in stock or not. We haven't had a lot of stockouts in the most recent past here. the last, I'd say, year, we've been pretty good. And we've been doing our darndest to keep it that way. 22:23 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) So, I think you're probably familiar with how some of your competitors operate. And one in particular has a system where their users are able to sort of plug their numbers into some sort of SharePoint or something like that. So, there's kind of a running total. So, you can see how a lot is going. Is there anything like that? You guys have anything like that? Unfortunately, we do not have any type of 23:00 - Kevin Kopp Program like that currently. I've been told that our products can be put into systems like that, but I'm not directly aware of how that operates and how that happens. But I have been told that it can't be done, is what I've been told. Okay. 23:23 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) And what about how, if I had an application that I was working with, or an essay that I was working with, as far as technical support, are you only able to provide anything like that? 23:44 - Kevin Kopp I think it would depend on what it is specifically, but we do have an entire team dedicated resources. Our engineering team, that's who we lean on for those types of activities, whether it be just like a technical question about our experience and things that we've seen or done. In the past, if there's something we need to look into, we can take a look into it. Obviously, if you're having issues with the product, that would be the team to go to. Currently, or not currently, as of yesterday, I'm no longer in charge of that, because I was kind of doing it myself. But I'm no longer in charge of it, because there's a lot smarter people than me doing it, I can tell you that. But I think that to kind of directly answer the question, I would say that our engineering team is pretty vast. We have a very wide range of information and knowledge, plus all the experience that we've had with making products for over 50 years. So, I mean, I wouldn't say that you can't throw something at us that we haven't seen, because trust me, it happens. But even if you do, you know, we do our best to dive into it and try to figure out what we can. All right. 24:53 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) Okay, great. Nice. Do you have any... 25:00 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Any other questions for us? 25:05 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) None that comes to mind, but if so, Raleigh, if I wanted, I guess I'm just wanting to know who would be my contact? Would it be you, Raleigh, or would it be you, Kevin? 25:22 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Yeah, so it'll be me, Prentiss. And so, you know, A to Z, whatever you need. If I'm not the proper one to answer a question, like Kevin mentioned, I might need to ferry something to our engineering team, but I'll be your point of contact. Okay, great. 25:40 - Prentiss Jones (WMed) So I'll take a look at the catalog, the online catalog, and see if there's anything I want to get right away. Beautiful. 25:50 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Yeah, after this call, I'll go ahead and I'll follow up with if, when you are ever interested in looking at customs, you know, the template, just to make things more streamlined. And I'll also drop some PDFs of our catalog for quick reference, too. That's fantastic. Awesome. Hey, well, it's so good to see you, Prentiss. I'm glad you were able to connect. All right. Take care. You too. Congrats to your daughter again. Congratulations. Thank you. Bye.