When Jeremy Russell took the helm as chief executive of private medical equipment company Freehand in September 2011, his remit was to take a proven surgical innovation for keyhole surgery and introduce a sustainable new sales model. With partnerships in the pipeline and the prospect of much wider market opportunities, the company is now preparing for a possible listing on the Alternative Investment Market in 2012 and has already started raising pre-IPO funding from private investors. Potential investors who want further information and/or to access investor presentations can contact Charles Breese.

The Freehand story dates back to 2000 when Armstrong Medical, and later Prosurgics, developed a floor-standing robotic arm that was designed to assist surgeons in carrying out minimally invasive surgery. The system controls a laparoscope – the telescope that a surgeon uses to view a surgical procedure in a patient’s abdomen – but the early equipment proved cumbersome in already busy operating theatres. It was redesigned four years ago as a bed-mounted unit and renamed Freehand – taking the overall product investment over 12 years to £15 million. However its sales model under the previous companies – which relied on selling the units direct to hospitals – proved to be dysfunctional despite the fact that the system was already finding favour with surgeons.

In December 2010, the assets relating to Freehand were purchased and Jeremy was subsequently brought in to lead the company. His appointment pairs him up with Freehand’s chairman Alistair Taylor (they worked together during the 1990s at med-tech company Biocompatibles (LON:BII)). Jeremy is a chemist by training and was until recently R&D director at Smiths Medical International, the medical devices group within Smiths (LON:SMIN). Together, the new management team are planning to capitalise on Freehand’s proven technology by adopting a new sales model and driving the product to profitability within two years.

Jeremy, as the CEO of Freehand, what is your long term strategy for the business?

In December 2010 the assets relating to the Freehand device were purchased as an ongoing business – there was a product that was on the market and was being sold but a completely new approach was needed. We had to take the overhead down, refocus, rethink and really put together a new strategy, which is…

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