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Only forward for Ritract

The nation will be promoting awareness of
innovation and entrepreneurship during the
Australian Innovation Festival being held
May 2-15. This year’s theme, “Innovation
and You”, is about celebrating and
encouraging creative practical solutions
and innovative approaches to everyday
problems.

Needlesleeve syringe

Ritract fits this mould perfectly, especially
with its latest product, the Needlesleeve
syringe, developed by WA inventors. The
device addresses the problem of needle
stick injuries among healthcare
professionals and will continue to provide a
royalty stream back to WA. The invention
was recently awarded a 2005 Frost and
Sullivan Award for Technology, Innovation
and Leadership of the Year, an
international accolade.
“As we understand it, the judges thought
the Needlesleeve technology was not only
very innovative but had strong commercial
potential,” Ritract’s Managing Director
Rupert Northcott said.
“They told us they really appreciated the
approach we are taking, which is to try and
address the whole problem of needle stick
injuries as a total solution, rather than
being individual product focused.”
Mr Northcott believes the award has “put a
small Aussie company right on the map as
far as a number of US corporations and
others are concerned”.
“We do expect it will open doors for us in
all sorts of places that would normally be
quite hard to access,” he said.
Ritract originated in Western Australia 18
months ago and was started with venture
capital.
“Health Tec Growth Partners, based in
Nedlands, have listed a number of health
initiatives (from WA) in the last couple of
years,” Mr Northcott said. “I think Western
Australia has a good track record in
coming up with original ideas and your
really excellent lifestyle encourages
creative things to happen.”
The company has gone on to list on the
Australian Stock Exchange, set up an
office in Sydney and one in Canada.
“We knew from the outset that the core
part of the company’s success would
depend on how well we tackled the US
market and there is no doubt about it,
being there is the only way to feel your way
forward,” Mr Northcott said.
“Canada gives us unrestricted access to
the US market, it is far cheaper to run an
office in Canada than it is in the US, yet
there are no real disadvantages to being
based in Canada.”
He said the next step would be the release
of their first commercial product, the first
Australian automatically retractable safety
syringe.
“We believe we have the best product
available, not only in Australia but in the
world,” he said. . “It has all become very
real in a relatively short period of time.”