Vigmed is a Swedish medical technology company whose mission is to eliminate needlestick injuries by offering the market unique needle-protected products. Vigmed is headquartered in Helsingborg, Sweden. Vigmed’s share is traded on NASDAQ OMX First North in Stockholm (ticker VIG) and the company has approximately 5 600 shareholders. Remium Nordic AB is the Company’s Certified Advisor. Additional information can be found on Vigmed’s home page: www.vigmed.com
We are pleased with the results of our rights issue and particularly with the participation from existing shareholders. The issue proceeds in combination with our focus on cost management, will allow the Company to establish a profitable business over the coming years.
We welcome Vestek to our European and Nordic network of partners, and we look forward with anticipation to the introduction of the Vigmed safety products to the Finnish market. This is a significant step to close the loop with all the Nordic markets and Vestek is an ideal partner for our future success in Finland.
We are very excited about this cooperation with Vigmed. Vestek has supplied health care products to hospitals in Finland since 1979. This new distributorship is a major milestone for our company and it will remarkably strengthen the business in our Health Care Division. Our professional staff has extensive experience of promoting and selling similar type of products. Vigmed’s safety products are a great innovation for the health care field and we are confident they will be successful on the Finnish market, too.
The Company’s performance over the past year has been disappointing. We have identified several reasons for this and these have now been resolved. The delays which have occurred, have however, damaged confidence in the business and we must now speed up the sales of our products. By this change at management level, the board is convinced that we will achieve necessary focus and re-motivate both employees and distributors.
Of course we have a number of challenges ahead that will require both hard work and endurance, but I am confident we will succeed as we have built a solid base of high-quality products, knowledgeable and motivated employees as well as strong partnerships. It is my assessment that we have solved the initial teething problems that some of our products have had. I have great respect for the task, but at the same time I am full of energy and optimism.
We are very pleased to announce that from now Vigmed will be handling all supply chain operations ourselves. We have had a great start and the first orders have just been shipped.
This move will enable us to continue growing our company and to better support the demands of our customers. The new warehouse is conveniently located in the south of Sweden, not far from our head office, which enables us to have close and regular contact with the facilities.
We are obviously pleased with this order and the positive feedback we are receiving from the market. Short term, this will ensure that we deliver on our monthly sales forecast for October. Even if order levels are modest, we now see four consecutive months of increasing sales.
The initial uptake of SWiTCH indicates that our development team has successfully managed to connect different aspects of the user needs for such products.
I am very pleased to announce that Vigmed has been granted CE-approval for SWiTCH by the Notified Body Presafe – in time for our prelaunch campaign.
The launch of SWiTCH is a major milestone for Vigmed, as it offers our distributors a premium priced product range to complement their existing Vigmed portfolio, this enabling them to increase their focus and time offered to sales of Vigmed products.
The interest in SWiTCH has been significant as it offers the first safety product of its kind, this is reflected in the fact that the first orders have already been received.
This specially developed product has been eagerly awaited by Vigmed's partners and end-users, given it broadens the safety offering to the Critical Care and Anesthesia markets. The commercialization effort started four months ago, and having received the CE-mark, the pre-launch campaign is now being rolled out.
This is the result of a successful partnership with CODAN DEHA and a great affirmation that our product and development procedures can deliver what we promise. This further strengthens our position in Denmark and confirms that we have the right platform to continue to see further success in other European markets.
CLiP® Neo corresponds very well to the tender requirements for safety products and it got an excellent evaluation related to both product design and functionality in this particular tender. The fact that we can offer two sizes – both 24G and 26G – also played a part in winning the tender.
We welcome Hospithera to our expanding network of qualified and well renowned distributors, and we very much look forward to introducing our safety products to the Belgian market.
Belgium is an important and rapidly growing market. I am confident that the synergy between our products and the high quality ones in the Hospithera range will ensure success for both companies.
After a thorough market analysis, we noticed that Vigmed’s catheters were received enthusiastically by the Belgian market. The safety of health professionals remains a hot topic, now - and in the future. We see great potential for our cooperation with Vigmed.
This segment is very interesting for Vigmed’s product portfolio and future business development, and we have already developed functional prototypes of this new product category. We possess today a very solid and exciting innovation portfolio, however Vigmed is currently focusing on commercializing the products already launched and available today. We will therefore evaluate other business opportunities for this product segment.
It is currently difficult to foresee the immediate market up-take for this year, which is why we have decided not to give any new short-term sales forecast for 2015. The ongoing market launch of the CLiP product lines and the upcoming launch of SWiTCH allow us all however to look forward to the coming quarters with great confidence.
Finn Ketler, CEO, Vigmed
We are very pleased with how well the CLiP products have been received in all markets and we feel very confident that ongoing product launches will continue to be successful.
It is not totally satisfactory that revenue is somewhat lower than expected at the end of 2014, but in the early stages of a start-up it is difficult to predict the time frame of setting up with distributors as well as predicting when product launches will fit into distributor’s training and sales processes which determine how fast products can be launched on respective markets. However, I anticipate that this will stabilize gradually within the coming years.
We are extremely pleased to welcome one of the companies within the strong Mediq group to our family of distributors in Europe.
Mediq Suisse is a growing company and we are very much looking forward to assist this growth by offering quality products which fit with their goals of bringing safer products to the Swiss healthcare market.
I am confident that this is the start of a prosperous business relationship. Our qualified team here in Switzerland is keen to start promoting these products in 2015, and we look forward to helping to reduce needlestick injuries in the country with the safety innovations Vigmed is providing.
This is a very significant milestone for Vigmed as Germany represents one of the most important markets worldwide for us.
With Vygon Germany we continue our success of signing distribution agreements with only the strongest partners in each market we enter.
The products from Vigmed completes our customer offering very well and we have high expectations of the cooperation with Vigmed.
It’s with great pleasure that we welcome Vygon Germany to our network of distributors and we very much look forward to introducing our unique safety products to the German market.
We welcome CODAN Austria to our expanding cooperation within the CODAN family and we very much look forward to introducing our safety products to the Austrian market.
As with the other CODAN agreements I am confident that the synergy between our products and the high quality ones in the CODAN range will ensure success for both companies.
We have good relations with the opinion leaders and decision makers in the Austrian market following years of delivering high quality products and services.
It is with great pleasure and anticipation that we now can start selling the innovative products from Vigmed, and with this cooperation we look forward to developing our infusion therapy offering even more in the coming years.
The fact that Vigmed’s rights issue was oversubscribed demonstrates the strong belief and expectations on the Company and its future development. Through this successful rights issue, Vigmed has guaranteed the required capital to enter the next phase – the commercialisation phase - where Vigmed will continuously and rapidly establish distribution channels in several new markets. It is with great confidence I look forward to a continuing strong development and expansion during 2015.
We welcome CODAN France to our expanding cooperation within the CODAN family and we very much look forward to introducing our needle protected products to the important French market.
I am confident that the synergy between our products and those in the CODAN range will ensure rapid success on the market.
These products fit the CODAN image and strategy of offering an expanded range of high-end products to our customers.
We have high expectations for the Vigmed products, given their fit with our current product range.
Adding another of the large European countries to our network, is an important milestone for us and vital to Vigmed’s success.
This is a major milestone for both our company and for medical staff around the world. The launch of this product comes at a timely moment with the focus on current Ebola-crisis in mind.
We strive to make the workplace of medical staff a safer place, and offering this safety device to the market will further contribute to this effort, as well as adding safety to one of the most common medical procedures in the world.
Our distributors can now start introducing this line to their markets and we are confident the products will be positively received by both our customers and end users.
We are extremely pleased to have Device Technologies as our partner in this region. As with Vigmed’s other partners, this will be the start of a close sales, marketing and development cooperation.
Device Technologies has substantial experience of this particular geographical market, specific experience of the infusion therapy market and excellent reputation for quality sales and support. The fact that they have chosen our safety products over other manufacturers’ gives us great confidence when entering these markets.
The Vigmed products offer us a quality, cost effective and competitive solution to the issue of needlestick injuries and healthcare workers safety.
This cooperation fits well with our aim to enable superior health outcomes for patients, by providing them with access to the best medical systems available worldwide.
The Arterial catheter market is smaller than the one for I.V. catheters, but as it is a premium priced market with less competition, we expect our new product to contribute with earnings rather fast.
It should also be noted, that when launching the new product, our European distribution network will be in place and given the market demand, our partners are welcoming this new opportunity.
Vigmed’s arterial catheter is a perfect project for us as a provider of complex medical devices.
