Zoono and SARS, page-33

I work in the public health sector, and I think I can provide you with a little bit of insight in how a product might gain traction.

Departments (such as pathology) have to place all of their orders through a preferred supplier. That supplier is the equivalent of a distributor, which aggregates a large number of products together, so that everything can be ordered from more or less one place. Think like Staples, or something like that.

There's a distributor for office supplies, another one for general laboratory supplies, and then some individual suppliers for specialist things like reagents for testing. I imagine Zoono would fall under 'general laboratory supplies'.

Regardless, to the best of my understanding, each of these suppliers has to compete for tender periodically to win a contract to supply the lab, and once they win it then everything must be ordered through that supplier, no exceptions. The supplier has state-wide tender I believe, at least as far as NSW goes, so they have to be pretty big.

In order for Zoono products to end up in the hospital, they would need to be carried by one of these suppliers, and we would have to order it. Each department has their own budget and places their own orders. Suppliers may stock several different brands, and different labs/departments may stock a product based on personal preference. There are a lot of individual departments, for each hospital, and they each manage their own inventory (but all from the same suppliers).

To further complicate matters, the laboratories and the hospital wards operate completely independently of each other (structurally, financially). So, if pathology was using Zoono products, then there is no guarantee the wards would be using the products, and vice versa.

The hospital cleaners are yet again a different group, and are privately contracted - I don't know if they use their own supplies or if they are provided by the hospital, but they have to meet certain standards mandated by the hospital (eg/ minimum for floors is 10% bleach, if I recall correctly). I can find out what floor product they use pretty easily.

I can tell you from personal experience that 'Viraclean' is the dominant surface disinfectant used throughout pathology, for all tabletops/benchtops/fume cabinets, etc. By dominant, I mean it is the only product I have ever seen used in a lab, public or private. I've also seen it used throughout the wards.

In terms of hand sanitising, there are three products routinely used - an alcohol foam, found wall mounted extensively throughout hospitals and in labs, and then at hand wash stations you will find a mild antimicrobial liquid hand soap w/ emollient, and a more aggressive chlorhexidine hand wash. I can't remember the brands off the top of my head, 3M I think.


Summary: to get Zoono in public hospitals or labs, Zoono would need to directly target the distributors that supply the hospitals.

Side note/ hospitals are veerrrry tight on their budgets. The B word is whispered like a curse. If a product came out that competed well on price (all else being equal), that could be enough to switch brands. It would be easier to target the hand and floor sanitisers than Viraclean. People love Viraclean.

Hope that helps.