Miris boosts activity in the US and EU
Miris, a leader in breast milk analysis, has increased activity in the US and Europe after the pandemic has subsided. After the summer, the sales team has been into an intensive period with installations of instruments, training of hospital staff and exhibition and training at conferences. They also offer continued support and remote training via Miris Studio. BioStock contacted Miris Sales Manager Marie Ekholm to know more about the activities.
Uppsala company Miris develops and sell instruments for the analysis of the nutritional content of breast milk. Its purpose is to ensure the nutritional needs of premature babies.
The Miris Human Milk Analyzer (Miris HMA) is the only market-approved analytical instrument globally for the analysis of human milk, providing neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and milk banks with the ability to analyse breastmilk to individually customize it for each baby. This method is called Target Fortification.
Miris also sells products for sample preparation and consumables to be able to offer a complete product portfolio for breast milk analysis.
Sales record
The portfolio is sold in more than 50 countries, both directly through the company and through distributors. The company recently reported a sales record with sales of 8.8 MSEK for the first half of 2022 – the company’s best half-year to date.
Miris CEO Camilla Myhre Sandberg commented on sales growth in the H2 report:
“A clear sign that a broader market is embracing the message we have been communicating over the past five years.”
With an approved instrument and a complete product portfolio, the company holds a special position to become a leading global leader in breast milk analysis.
Conferences boosts activity in the US and EU
After the summer, Miris increased its marketing activities for continued expansion in the US and Europe. The sales team is in an intensive period with installations and training at conferences and by hospital staff on site. They also provide support and training to customers remotely via Miris Studio.
Recently, Miris’ Sales Director Marie Ekholm held a seminar during the Nutrition of Premature Infants conference in České Budějovice, Czech Republic, on the clinical use of human milk analysis. Miris’ distributor for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, DN Formed, was also there to demonstrate HMA.
Miris also attended several conferences in the US in September, including Fall National Neonatal, Mother Baby, and Advanced Practice Neonatal Nurses Conferences in California, NANN’s Annual Conference in Nevada, and USLCA’s New Horizon’s in Clinical Lactation conference.
In September, Miris also visited customers at Naval Medical Center and King’s Daughters Milk Bank, in Norfolk, USA. King’s Daughters Milk Bank was one of the first milk banks in the United States to implement Miris HMA.
During October Miris will attend EAPS Barcelona and the AAP National Conference in Anaheim, USA, in November the sales team will also exhibit at INAC in Dubai and Hot Topics in Neonatology in Washington D.C.
Comments from the Sales Director
To know more about the company’s marketing activities, BioStock contacted Miris’ Sales Director Marie Ekholm.
Miris’ sales team has participated in several conferences and events since the summer. What experiences do you take home with you?
– Above all, we take with us how interest in our product continues to grow. We have also focused a little differently now after the summer. In the past, we have often attended conferences aimed at neonatologists. We have now broadened our scope and in September had a focus on conferences aimed at NICU nurses and lactation specialists. These are hugely important in the care of premature babies and we have seen a great interest in our product within these groups as well.
– By targeting several segments of the care of premature babies, we are creating pressure internally from several parts of the hospital. We are already noticing the effects of these broad activities.
Have you gained any new insights that can be used in the development of Miris HMA 2.0?
– Every meeting with our customer segment increases our insight into what the market needs and demands in the next generation of HMA. During Q3, we also sent out a user survey to all our customers and we received a huge response. We are very grateful that so many people have taken the time to respond to our survey. It has also given us a very good overview of what we need to develop in HMA 2.0.
– The survey has also proven that we have very good knowledge of our customers as the answers correspond very well with our picture of how customers work and what needs to be done to ensure continued growth for Miris.
Have the conferences led to new agreements and/or collaborations that you can comment on?
– As we continue to have a fairly long sales cycle, as for all medical devices in our price category, we cannot yet see the results of the conferences we have attended. But we are starting to see the fruits of the hard work that we made at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. It is noticeable that the market has come to life after the pandemic, not only in the US but also in the rest of the world. Examples include the Minnesota Milk Bank for Babies and Banner University Medical Center, which I am currently on my way to install and train the staff in the use of Miris HMA.
Finally, what is the potential for Miris HMA technology to become standard care at NICUs?
– We are well on our way to ending up there in the United States. More and more NICUs are joining the Miris family and we already cover a large part of the NICUs in the US that care for the sickest children. We are currently seeing growth in almost every market that we process. For example, in Eastern Europe, several projects are underway to implement breast milk analysis in the care of premature babies. I think it is only a matter of time before it is part of the standard care offered to these kids.
