Dear Investors,
It has been an exciting six months here at Osprey Medical. We have seen the number of our investors increase significantly and that’s why I wanted to take this opportunity to write to you to share a bit about our history and outline why we’re so optimistic about the future. We are excited to have you join us on this journey and thank you for investing in Osprey Medical.
Mike McCormick, President and CEO, Osprey Medical
My personal journey with Osprey - Mike McCormick, CEO
I have been the President and CEO of Osprey Medical since 2010. I have over 30 years’ experience working at the most senior level in the medical device industry in the US. I was involved in the successful sale of Centerpulse to Zimmer in 2003 for US$3.2b when I was the President of Centerpulse Spine-Tech. My connection and the story of Osprey Medical, however, is a personal one.
Back in 2008, my father-in-law had chest pain and was admitted to hospital for a coronary angiogram. This procedure sees special contrast dye flooded into the heart to expose narrow or blocked arteries using powerful X-ray technology. It’s a standard, minimally invasive procedure and it is vital in the prevention of heart attacks. The problem is, the contrast dye is a strong drug that is cleared from the bloodstream by the kidneys and unfortunately for patients with pre-existing poor kidney function, the dye can cause additional kidney injury with devastating health implications.
My father-in-law had underlying issues with his kidneys and as a result of the contrast dye used in his heart procedure, he suffered an Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) event. Following the procedure, my father-in-law was placed on dialysis, causing a drastic reduction to his quality of life, and he lived for just one year after the procedure.
Following this tragic situation, I started to research the prevalence of contrast dye related AKI and the results were terrifying. Of the seven million patients globally admitted for heart imagining procedures, 1.7 million (one in four) have an underlying kidney issue or other risk factors and approximately 20 per cent will suffer an AKI event. A shocking 9 per cent of those that have an AKI event die in the first four days following the procedure.
This is a real problem affecting millions and I thought there must be a solution, somewhere. My research led me to discover Osprey’s inventor, Professor David Kaye, a world-renowned Heart Failure specialist at Melbourne’s Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute. David and I began working together and Osprey’s contrast reduction technologies were born.
Osprey’s bright future
Osprey’s technology is unique globally. We have created the only FDA cleared technology of its kind, which reduces the amount of contrast dye required in coronary procedures by an average of 40 per cent. This really matters for patients and hospitals.
For patients, lowering the contrast dye load reduces the risk of kidney damaging events that can lead to dialysis or death. For hospitals, AKI leads to unplanned additional length of stay that is generally not reimbursed and it also increases 30-day readmissions that come with penalties from payers.
The DyeVert system has been proven in clinical studies to reduce AKI events by up to 64 per cent. This is a positive advancement for patients, and for hospitals and it is the reason that Osprey has been able to deliver an annual compound growth rate of 84 per cent over the last four years.
Osprey Medical’s long-term growth strategy has always been focused on sales. Our recently announced agreement with GE Healthcare will see the global healthcare giant distribute Osprey technology across Europe and to many other countries outside the US. Patients are imaged using GE Healthcare dye products every second globally, and the organisation has a full salesforce of over 100 representatives across the geographies covered by the agreement. This is five times larger than the size of Osprey’s current salesforce in the US, adding real firepower to Osprey’s sales capability.
The global market opportunity for Osprey is $1.1bn, so there is much to play for and exciting potential as we build momentum with our new, global salesforce.
A raise of A$12.8m in April 2020 from Australian investors, including Brandon Capital, one of Australia’s largest institutional life science investor, has provided much-needed growth capital for Osprey and our share price has doubled from what it was just six months ago.
While we cannot be complacent, there is much to celebrate, and we thank you for the vital role you play in our success.
Where to from here?
With so many new investors having joined us, we plan to communicate more regularly with you on what the Osprey Medical team are doing. We have a strong pipeline of company milestones over the next six months which we want to share with you as they happen.
This week we took part in the HC Wainwright Small Cap Conference in the US, a major investment conference. If you missed the announcement or want to catch the presentation, you can watch it here.
https://wsw.com/webcast/hcw7/register.aspx
I hope that you have found this letter informative. By investing in Osprey Medical, you have invested in technology which is improving the health of thousands and also saving lives. You have also invested in a company that is growing and expanding its reach globally.
Thank you for investing in Osprey Medical. My hope is that you stay with us for the long-term and if you know of friends who want to invest ethically, in a high growth business, please share this letter with them.
Kind regards,
Mike McCormick
President and CEO
