Invent Medic remains active in femtech consolidation going forward – CEO
After a strong first quarter, Invent Medic follows the trend and reports sales of more than 2 MSEK for the second quarter of 2023. CEO Anna Lindström tells BioStock about the positive sales trend and how she views the opportunities for further acquisitions in the women’s health sector.
Lund-based Invent Medic has built a portfolio of products that promote women’s health. The first product, Efemia Bladder Support, is a continence support aimed at women suffering from stress urinary incontinence. After the acquisition of Malmö-based FlowCup, the company now also has a series of products focusing on intimate hygiene.
Last week the company released its report for the second quarter of 2023. It continues to exceed its own expectations, with sales of over 2.1 MSEK, which corresponds to an increase of 170 per cent compared to the same period in 2022.
British tailwind for Efemia Bladder Support
When it comes to Efemia Bladder Support, the strong performance is primarily driven by the success in the UK. Invent Medic sees many similarities between how the company’s distributors in Norway and the UK work.
In the report, the company states that these are lessons it hopes to be able to apply on the German market, which has not developed as expected. Work has also begun to educate prescribers of the product, and the ambition is to accelerate that work further in the future.
In its home market Sweden, Efemia is now represented in 16 of the 21 regions and the goal is to have a presence in all of them.
The FlowCup family is growing
When it comes to FlowCup, Invent Medic’s CEO Anna Lindström particularly highlights the success of FlowCup Flex. The product has received a positive response, which according to her underlines the need for a varied product range. During the summer, Invent Medic also added the period panty Flow Undies to the portfolio. In connection with this, BioStock interviewed FlowCup’s founder Diana Lidforsen, read that interview here.
Aiming for positive cash flow in 2024
In the second quarter of 2023, cash flow amounted to approximately -1.4 MSEK, which can be compared with -4.2 MSEK for the corresponding period last year. Invent Medic aims to achieve a positive cash flow by the latter part of 2024.
Part of achieving this lies in continuing according to the strategy that has been laid for the existing business. The second part consists of continuing the search for potential acquisitions. In parallel, work is underway to resolve the company’s long-term financial position. In the near term, liquidity has been resolved through a loan facility.
CEO comments
BioStock contacted Invent Medic’s CEO Anna Lindström for her thoughts on the past quarter, and to gauge the temperature of the women’s health sector.
First of all, Anna, how do you view the latest quarter and the strong sales growth you are seeing at the moment?
– We have had a good quarter and increased sales by 170 per cent compared to the same quarter last year. The results for the quarter show and confirm that we are focusing on the right things in the company. We are taking important steps in the market and we are building for continued growth. At the same time, both me and my employees want even more, which we work for every day.
As far as Efemia is concerned, you attribute much of the success to the strong development in the UK. What makes the development particularly strong there?
– Efemia Bladder Support is a product that is sold and prescribed on recommendation, which involves a lot of work to educate prescribers so that they feel safe with the product. Just over a year ago, we changed distributor in the UK. In addition to good knowledge of and contact network in incontinence and womens health, the distributor has several sales people that are out visiting professionals in the women’s health area.
– This work is now having a good effect on sales, and there is much more potential here due to the large population of the country.
In the report, you state that you are looking at how you can accelerate the work of educating prescribers about continence support. Can you elaborate on this?
– The progress in increasing the number of regions in Sweden that have the opportunity to prescribe Efemia Bladder Support creates new exciting challenges for us as we handle sales in-house in Sweden. There are more people that we will visit and educate, and in 2022 we have increased our contact network through exhibitions and congresses significantly. It is a fun challenge where we add additional tools to be able to meet demand.
– This autumn we will launch t.ex. Efemia Academy, a digital lecture series for the profession as a complement to the physical educational meetings that we participate in.
Period panties are a relatively new product category in intimate hygiene and there are several players conducting campaigns right now. How does your product differ from others on the market?
– In the product development phase, we conducted a survey among our menstrual cup users, about what properties they saw as important when it comes to menstrual panties. Our customers mainly mentioned that they wanted to feel comfortable and safe. Flow Undies is a very comfortable panty that does not press or chafe against your stomach during your period.
– We took safety to another level and focused not only on menstrual panties being leak-free, but also on the product being good for both intimate health and the environment by not adding bactericidal chemicals.
You are actively looking for acquisitions. What type of company are you looking for in the first place?
– The important thing in the process is that the companies fit with each other and that there are clear synergies between the companies. We look at companies with brands and products with a focus on women’s health in three business areas: digital products, consumer products and IT technology-driven products.
Earlier this summer, we received the news that your sector colleagues Pharmiva and Peptonic are merging. How do you view the possibility of possible major deals or mergers?
– At the beginning of 2022, when the board and I defined Invent Medic’s acquisition strategy, it was clear in the external analysis that the Femtech market is fragmented and that it will be consolidated within the next few years. There will continue to be acquisitions and mergers between companies in women’s health and we will be part of this.
The content of BioStock’s news and analyses is independent but the work of BioStock is to a certain degree financed by life science companies. The above article concerns a company from which BioStock has received financing.
