Partnership opens doors in Europe for Motryx
Halifax company offers quality assurance for blood sample transport in hospitals
A Halifax startup is on the verge of getting its product into hundreds of hospitals throughout western Europe thanks to a new partnership with Aerocom of Germany.
Motryx sells a product that tracks what happens to blood samples as they zoom around hospitals in pneumatic tubes.
These systems, which have been used for decades, use air to push smaller tubes of paperwork along like a subway car in a tunnel. The samples can get shaken up and spoiled along the way. That's bad for the patients and can cost the hospitals money.
"It's a difficult calculation to make, but when a blood sample can't be analyzed for a specific diagnostic result, that sample has to be redrawn," explained Franziska Broell, CEO and co-founder of Motryx.
"We have calculations that estimate that (cost) to be anywhere from $20 to $200 per sample."
For patients waiting for results, this can also create added stress, forcing them to go back to the hospital to provide a new sample. About 70 per cent of a diagnostic result in a hospital relies on a blood sample.
Motryx's Vitalqc is a sensor and software tool that has been used in hospitals, laboratories and research institutes around the world; it's now in use at 23 hospitals.
On Monday, the company announced a partnership with Aerocom, a global leader in high-tech pneumatic transport systems. They are installed at more than 2,000 hospitals in Europe.
Under the partnership, Aerocom will distribute Vitalqc in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Spain, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
"With this partnership agreement, we hope to roll out
the product over all the hospital installations," said Broell, who has a PHD in oceanography from Dalhousie.
GLOBAL COMPANY
Aerocom has been in business since 1956 and has a 30 per cent market share of hospital pneumatic transport systems globally, so their vote of confidence is a big deal for Motryx.
"With the Motryx agreement, Aerocom raises the bar in providing quality assurance," Aerocom CEO Roland Pfitzer said in a news release.
"This agreement enables Aerocom to offer an even better and more complete solution to laboratories and hospitals around the world."
Broell said the Aerocom agreement makes business sense, as regulatory testing requirements for the transportation of blood samples via such systems is more stringent overseas than in Canada.
She expects it may be another five years before Canada catches up with Europe in that regard.
"That makes it very natural for us to partner with a European company," she said.
"They definitely see the level of uptake of the product a lot higher in the European market, especially in the Scandinavian countries, which are really at the forefront of medical and health-care developments."
QUALITY ASSURANCE
Vitalqc can be used to test the installation of a new tube system or to track problems and ensure quality control following hospital renovations.
"With this product, the hospitals can optimize and improve their specimen quality and their throughput in the laboratory, which then essentially reflects in patient care," Broell said.
Motryx expects the Aerocom agreement could lead to bigger things, but Broell said the focus for now will be on getting the most out of that partnership.
"It really helps startups like ours to get into a very complex market, which is that health-care system market in
a country or region that's very far away from where we're headquartered," Broell said.
Motryx has nine employees and expects to have its 10th hire early in the new year. Broell plans to add a few more in 2021 and said Motryx may eventually have someone on the ground in Germany.
The company has received financial support from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the National Research Council, as well as venture capital firms Concrete Ventures and Killick Capital, and a variety of angel investors.
"Even though we don't have an easy time getting into the Canadian market, the financial support has certainly accelerated our ability to penetrate the global market," Broell said.