Texas MedTech Mission Creates Demand for British-Developed Products
By Paul Benton, International Director at the ABHI
Appointed sales and distribution partners, dedicated warehouse facilities and new US customers are just some of the outcomes from the UK MedTech missions to Texas.
Over the last few years, I have had the privilege of taking dozens of companies to Texas as part of a series of MedTech missions to the State. The aim of these missions has been to help UK healthcare companies develop and strengthen US partnerships and create demand for British-developed products.
We have spent a long time developing relationships with key stakeholders and arranging meetings with hospital system leaders, GPOs, distributors, clinical leaders and procurement teams. These meetings have been extremely successful, and I am pleased to say that companies on the mission have found them invaluable. They provide market intelligence and relationships with key decision makers, influencers and purchasers. They have also helped to facilitate routes into local business networks and support, necessary to establishing and growing relationships in Texas.
Forte Medical
There have been so many positive outcomes from the mission so far, including urine specimen collection specialist, Forte Medical, who now have a Texas-based distributor with a sales force in five States. The company have also sourced a warehouse facility that can fulfil orders across all 50 States and are shortlisting prospective plastics injection moulding companies to manufacture under licence for long-term market delivery.
During the ABHI mission, Forte were introduced to healthcare leaders and decision makers. The company say that appetite for accurate diagnostics, targeted antibiotic prescribing, and right-first-time patient care is so great in the USA that the market has opened for them in a matter of months. They have gone on to have stock in the USA and are looking at a base in Texas so they can grow their market. In their own words, "the mission has quite simply transformed the business for the better".
Forte Medical are also one of the first companies to locate themselves at the ABHI Innovation Hub, a unique partnership between ABHI and the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin. The Hub will offer them the opportunity to locate themselves at a world-class facility and continue to develop their US business within an ecosystem of clinicians, investors and mentors.
The facilities at the Dell Medical Centre are nothing short of world-class.
On behalf of the ABHI, we wish Forte all the success in 2018 and are looking forward to seeing their progress in Texas and beyond.
For more information on future missions, or to find out more about the ABHI Innovation Hub, email Scarlett O'Sullivan: Scarlett.OSullivan@abhi.org.uk
