01 Dec Building a Medical Products Business: A 10-Year Journey in Five Acts
The central purpose of my blog is to recount a journey that started with an idea for an innovative medical device in Singapore and blossomed into the successful company that MediPurpose not only is today, but also continues to become.
All stories need a beginning, and MediPurpose’s arguably began in 1998 when my brother-in-law John Teo invented the original SurgiLance One-Step Safety Lancet.
I was soon invited to help him build a company — then known as SurgiLance — that would complete his medical device’s development, set up its manufacturing, and establish its marketing and distribution.
After launching the SurgiLance One-Step Safety Lancet in the United States in 2000, SurgiLance quickly achieved sales of $1 million (2001) and then $3 million (2002) and then $6.3 million in 2003 — the same year we were bestowed the prestigious Frost & Sullivan Distribution Leadership Award. By 2005, after expanding into European distribution the previous year, we had achieved profitability.
In 2006, shortly after International Technidyne Corp. (ITC) appointed us as co-exclusive distributors for their Tenderfoot™ Heelstick, we changed our name to MediPurpose.
2009 saw many exciting changes at MediPurpose, such as the new Website and and the launch of Medical Device Innovation and Medical Product Distribution Services divisions — with many others that we’ll be rolling out in 2010 and beyond.
However, before I cast too much of an eye on the future, I want to retrace this journey up to this point, which covers five overlapping phases:
- Bringing the SurgiLance™ Safety Lancet to market
- Developing medical product distribution channels
- Moving to global medical product markets
- Partnering with medical device innovators
- Serving as master distributor
I’m hoping that you’ll get as much out of the journey as I am with looking forward to revisiting it!