http://www.piworld.co.uk/videos/2015/11/4/sphere-medical-sharesoc-growth-company-seminar-21st-october-2015
CEO, Wolfgang Rencken, outlines the role of their Proxima blood gas analyser to optimise the most efficient patient flow through hospitals.
He cites the global market potential as $200m.
SPHR are well capitalised from a fund raise of £13.2m including £4m from Woodford
The next stage is to find a partner – an existing company with an international sales team, selling Proxima 4 into hospitals.
Hospital’s reluctance to change procedures is the biggest challenge to SPHR’s commercialisation. It will take time, but ultimately, if that resistance is broken down the potential is huge.
I thought this presentation was poor and I wondered if it showed rather well why there might be resistance to sales. I accept that I am medically qualified and assume that any presentation to doctors might be more scientifically accurate. I do hope he doesn't try to convince doctors that sampling blood actually significantly worsens anaemia or that there might be cross contamination from laboratories back to other patients. After a while, I lost patience with it and switched off. If I had been part of a purchasing team, I would have wanted far more quickly a comparison between the cost of the well established and quite satisfactory method of checking blood gases and/or electrolytes with the cost of running a Proxima and the relative reliability. The big issue for me is the management of the machine by trained staff. Technology cannot replace good clinical skills and it may well be better use of money to employ a second nurse than a machine that few understand and which is only vital, moment by moment under rare circumstances. I would not invest in this company.
