Celebrating Medovate’s successes during a year of unpredictability

2020 will be remembered as an unpredictable year. But despite the tough environment created by the coronavirus pandemic, Medovate are looking back on the fantastic milestones we have achieved.

At Medovate we have long recognised the value of innovation. Our company was founded with a vision to help improve care for patients – across the UK and worldwide. As a business we are committed to the development and commercialisation of innovative medical technologies created within the NHS primarily, but also beyond (as the 5th largest employer in the world, the NHS is home to some brilliant minds!).

Innovation and safety have proven the mantra of our newfound world. They also form the cornerstone of quality care – and underpin the unique offering of our very first product to be launched: SAFIRA® (SAFer Injection for Regional Anaesthesia). Which brings us to our first highlight of the year:

Bringing our first medtech innovation to market

At the end of last year, we were proud to announce our company’s move to Camboro Business Park as we prepared to scale up for some exciting developments in the pipeline. And we were delighted to kick off 2020 by announcing the launch of our FDA approved device SAFIRA® – our first-ever device.

SAFIRA® is designed to make regional anaesthesia safer for patients worldwide – which, at a time where the world is battling a highly infectious respiratory disease, has proven particularly poignant.

The device was created in collaboration with clinicians from the NHS and offers a highly innovative solution that for the first time enables regional anaesthesia to become a one-person procedure (falling in line with the demands of our new socially distanced world). The technology helps to improve patient safety by preventing anaesthetic from being injected at high pressures, thus helping to reduce the risks of nerve damage.

Exclusive US partnership deals

Despite the closure of borders across the world, we were delighted to mark the official launch of SAFIRA® in spring 2020 – synchronously marking our entry into the US, the world’s largest medical device market. This was despite the planned physical launch at the leading ASRA 2019 event being one of the first events to be cancelled due to the pandemic. Utilising our ability to be flexible, the company was able to pivot and refocus resources and we embarked on a successful digital based launch instead.

This was accompanied by the exciting announcement of our exclusive partnerships with three initial US-based distributors for SAFIRA across the US, who between them covered a total of 20 states, or 40 per cent of the US: Illinois-based MED Alliance, Ohio-based OE Meyer Co and Seattle-based CoMedical.

The launch marked an incredibly important step forward for our company – and came just two years since Medovate itself was established – a testament to our unique position and ability to fast-track the development and commercialisation of medtech solutions arising from within the NHS.

It also marked the first in a series of exciting developments for SAFIRA globally, as the world battled the onset of covid-19 …

Making SAFIRA® accessible to global markets

Despite the challenges – from borders being closed to local businesses forced to shut their doors – in July, Medovate was delighted to announce that the company had concluded an agreement with Iowa based TLC Medical to act as an additional exclusive distributor for SAFIRA®, increasing our footprint in the US.

Our next big announcement moved slightly, further East …

With a mission to make the disruptive technology available to markets globally, in September we also announced that Medovate had signed a distribution agreement with Brisbane-based LTR Medical to provide exclusivity for SAFIRA® in Australia and New Zealand. This marked another incredible leap forward in making our new medical technology available to healthcare providers across the globe to help deliver improved patient care and cost saving benefits.

SAFIRA® has since gone on to achieve European CE mark certification, and this regulatory approval has been essential as our company continues to expand in territories across the world. The device has also secured both TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) Approval in Australia and inclusion on the WAND Database in New Zealand.

Continuing our journey East, an exclusive agreement with Sela Medical Ltd was recently announced to distribute SAFIRA® across Israel.

In October, Medovate signed an exclusive agreement with Vygon Group, a world leader in the medical devices industry in specialities including anaesthesia, to distribute SAFIRA® across 60 countries. Vygon will start a phased launch of in Europe at the end Q4 2020/start Q1 2020, with other global markets to follow (watch this space!).

And finally, we have finished the year on a high by concluding an agreement with Mercury Medical, a US leader in providing technological advances for clinicians in both airway solutions and anaesthesia – a move that will now provide 100% coverage across the United States of America for SAFIRA®.

Securing this number of key worldwide distributor partnerships during a global pandemic is a real achievement and demonstrates the strength and ambition of the company, along with the exciting impact the technology can generate.

Responding to the challenges of covid-19

Medovate has a commitment to making care safer for patients and clinicians worldwide, and behind the scenes the company been working hard to respond to the challenges of covid-19.

We fully (and safely) kept up all operations during the pandemic. All staff were enabled to work safely from home, and we all quickly became expert users of online collaboration solutions! ​

On top of bringing our technology to markets globally, we also embarked on projects to support the fight against the virus. In April, Medovate team members worked to create an innovative face mask incorporating a specialised filter. These masks were made available to NHS organisations for free, and some were also donated to the motor sport medical response unit in the East of England, and were used during the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Today, our crucial work in creating innovative solutions that can support patients globally continues, and we are proud to be ending the year on a high …

‘2020’s Leading Innovators in Medical Device Development’

In September, Medovate was named ‘2020’s Leading Innovators in Medical Device Development’ in Global Health & Pharma’s (GHP) 2020 Global Excellence Awards.

The award has been an amazing reflection of our company’s successes in the past year, and our ability to develop unique medical solutions for the benefit of patient care on a global scale.

This was followed by more good news as in November SAFIRA® was named the “Best Regional Anaesthesia Safety Solution 2020” at Global Health & Pharma’s (GHP) Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Awards 2020 – showcasing our continued commitment to innovation and safety.

Looking forward …

2020 has undeniably been a tough year, but – from the launch of our innovative regional anaesthesia technology across the US, to its journey across Europe, Australia and New Zealand – it has also been highly rewarding. Despite borders being closed, we are proud to be making headway across the globe and plan to continue our journey to make healthcare safer for patients, no matter where they are in the world.

As a company focused on innovative technologies that promote patient safety, we look forward to a bigger, more exciting future as we continue to increase our footprint across the world, and bring unique technologies to the UK and other European territories next year (… and hope 2021 will prove a more amenable year!).

Thank you to all our customers and partners for their invaluable support during this past year, and to our hard-working employees for their limitless drive, passion and dedication.

Review originally published by Chris Rogers on LinkedIn.