TheraSense's Sweet Spot

TheraSense is making inroads in the $4 billion diabetes testing market. Its FreeStyle glucose meter system is a quality product--perhaps the best in its class. FreeStyle has gained 6% of the US meter market in less than two years, and that share still appears to be increasing. But in the six years since the company's founding, the market has changed; more than ever, glucose meters are viewed as a consumer item. And TheraSense is competing with much larger companies in the space. TheraSense has already seen the marketing of blood glucose meters change dramatically in the past three years. Should the FreeStyle line wither in the face of big-company competition, it would have little left to drive its stock price.