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COO of Medisys PLC discusses new products coming to market and new business segment opportunities Full article published: 01/24/2003     DAVID CONN is the Chief Operating Officer of Medisys Plc


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TWST: Can we start with a brief historical sketch and introduction to Medisys (London: MDY.L)?

Mr. Conn: To give you the brief background, Medisys was founded about four and a half years ago with a focus on point-of-care medical products. The original concept was to try to find emerging health care businesses or opportunities that could be leveraged into significant growth opportunities. The two focus areas are medical safety products, and blood glucose monitoring products for the diabetes management category. Obviously there were some twists and turns in terms of how we got there – different acquisitions and slight product segmentation -- but this has remained the focus until this point.

TWST: Can I ask for an elaboration on what you are bringing to market?

Mr. Conn: On the safety products business, the main focus, centered around a retractable safety syringe. A product to be used in the point of care arena, specifically focused on acute care and to provide for healthcare worker safety. The safety syringe portfolio along with several other safety devices, such as a retractable scalpel, safety lancet and needless valve are now part of a co-marketing arrangement that we agreed with the Portex division of the Smith’s Medical Group. Our agreement with Smith’s was signed back in March of 02. Regarding the diagnostic business, the primary focus is the blood glucose monitoring segment. Most people would recognize this as the strip and meter used to test ones blood if you have Diabetes. Our core business in the US is in the Long-term Care market and is a continuation of the business acquired two years ago when we made the purchase of the diagnostic division of Chronimed, at that time called MedGenesis, based in Minneapolis,MN. We have also recently launched the first of our proprietary biosensor line of products that have been in development for several years at our R&D facility in the UK.

TWST: Would you give us an assessment of market size and drivers for your core activities, and the opportunities for your products?

Mr. Conn: Our data suggests the healthcare workers safety market is well over a billion dollar segment in the market today. In terms of retractable safety syringes, at this point that’s been quite an underserved market. We had identified the opportunity four years ago and it still remains underserved today. There is quite a bit of activity with first generation safety products, i.e. some type of sheathing device, but in terms of passive retractable safety syringes, it’s still very much underserved. Retractable Technologies Inc. continues to remain the leader in passive retractable syringes and now BD has introduced their offering in the recent months. Based on what has been available to the market at this point we still see this segment as a significant opportunity for us. In terms of the diabetes market, it’s really broken down into two ways to market, one is institutional and the other is a consumer orientation. The consumer business is then broken down further with the majority of the product flowing through retail and the remaining through mail order. The institutional segment is primarily the hospital and clinics market and then the nursing home or the long-term care market. Right now the bulk of our business is in the long-term care market and that represents about 8% of the total blood glucose market in the US. Now that we’ve moved into the Medicare mail order market we see that as representative of probably close to 20% of the overall market. The total US blood glucose market is approximately $2.5 Billion and $3.5Billion worldwide.

TWST: Can you walk us through some of the key objectives you would like to accomplish over the next couple of years?

Mr. Conn: On the safety products side, we’re having great success right now with the retractable safety scalpel. We had signed an agreement with Kaiser Permanente and Portex has carried that on and done a tremendous job in terms of driving the growth, and we look for that to continue. We have commented to the market that we plan on launching the safety syringe no later than June of this year, launching the 3cc safety syringe to the marketplace is one of our absolute, must-do, major milestones for the year. And then we’re also continuing developing a broader portfolio in the safety products area, but I’d say that would be a bit further out.


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This interview is a small excerpt from a comprehensive interview published in The Wall Street Transcript on 01/24/03. For more information call (212) 952 7400. The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does not make stock recommendations.

Copyright 2003, Wall Street Transcript Corp.

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