Annual Report and Accounts 2006 - Optos

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practitioner in maximising patient Operational and Financial Review 15% adoption rates of the optomap® continued Retinal Exam. Developing a closer working relationship with National Health Service (“NHS”) bodies continues to form part of our approach to the UK market and, during the year, development work was undertaken within the Primary Care Trust (“PCT”) network. Our aim is to assist in establishing Primary Eye Care Centres for triaging and patient management. The commercial and operational teams have been strengthened to provide us with an improved market focus, and streamlined decisionmaking for growing our installed base and integrating the optomap® Retinal Exam into both our existing and prospective customer practices. We reorganised the structure of our US organisation into two separate east and west geographic regions. These are now led respectively by a Vice-President and supported by Regional Sales and Clinical Managers tasked with maximising the sales and clinical effectiveness throughout each region. We opened a new Distribution and Service Centre (“DSC”) close to our Marlborough, Massachusetts office during the year. This facility provides the space, capability and capacity to support the continued expansion of our business in North America. Europe Revenues in Europe grew by 24% to $3.0 million, with $2.3 million generated by our UK business and $0.7 million in Germany. The European marketplace has very different characteristics than its North American counterpart. In the UK, the vast majority of eye examinations are carried out in a retail setting by ophthalmic opticians who tend to focus heavily on retail sales and refraction rather than on preventative care. Accordingly, we have estimated that there is a smaller addressable market of approximately 400 practices. The market in Germany is comprised entirely of ophthalmologists operating in private practice, who carry out primary as well as secondary care. We estimate that the addressable market in Germany stands at approximately 2,500 practices. Our total installed base in Europe at the close of the financial year was 118, up by 40% from 84 at the same time last year, representing over 3% penetration of the addressable market. In the UK, our focus is on contracting with and retaining top-tier optician practices, and, during the year, our activities were geared to this defined customer segment. The optomap® Retinal Exam is marketed and recommended to all patients as a health-screening examination requiring patient payment at the point of service. We improved our penetration rate during the year, with our installed base growing by 15% to 77, up from 67 at the same time last year. We continued to participate in continuing education conferences, and during the year, developed and offered a clinical conference series, held in four locations throughout the UK (London, Glasgow, Birmingham and Manchester), with a focus on acquiring new customers. In our existing customer base, we provided ongoing clinical, educational and marketing resources, as well as technical assistance to support the “At the time of our initial public offering, we identified France, Spain and Japan as holding favourable fundamentals for geographic expansion. ” Laser sources for the P200 MA device In Germany, we entered our second full year of operation and we made good progress in establishing Optos as a known and credible provider in the eye and health care market. We installed 24 P200 devices during the year, bringing the total installed base to 41, an increase of 141% over the previous year. A key operating objective during the year was to strengthen our infrastructure. To this end, we opened an office in Mannheim and recruited staff with established contacts in the German ophthalmic market. We now have in place a resident Managing Director who is responsible for the day-to-day operation in Germany, and additional sales and service-focused personnel who have the know-how to deliver on our aggressive objectives in this market. Our sales and marketing efforts also grew in quantity and quality during the year. We had an effective presence at the three major national exhibitions: Deutsche Ophthalmologische Gesellschaft (“DOG”), Kongress der Deutschen Ophthalmochirurgen (“DOC”), and Augenärztliche Akademie Deutschland (“AAD”). We also participated in joint Optospharmaceutical marketing events and initiated a local doctor-led customer awareness series, aimed at increasing awareness of our P200 device and the benefits of the optomap® Retinal Exam. Satisfied customers are an excellent source for referrals and new customer leads. To ensure we continue to be responsive to the needs of our customers, we conducted our first User Meeting and launched a quarterly communications programme where doctors receive a range of materials, including German patient marketing collateral, recent clinical research from our German research site – Ludwig- Maximilians-Universitätj (“LMU”) – and a broad range of templates to assist in their individual efforts to integrate the optomap® Retinal Exam deeper into their practice. Penetration in Germany stood at 2% of the addressable market at the close of the financial year, up from less than 1% at the same time last year. Increase in installed bases in the UK. A total of 77, up from 67 at the same time last year. 141% Increase in installed bases in Germany. A total of 41, up from 17 at the same time last year. During the year, we designed, commissioned and built our European Service Centre to support our expansion plans in Europe in both our existing and targeted new markets. This facility provides additional manufacturing and distribution capacity. We now manufacture three modules of our P200 device and provide distribution facilities to mainland Europe and the UK. This has enabled our manufacturing team to make significant progress in improving the quality of our output. We have brought in-house the manufacture of assemblies, which was previously outsourced, resulting in reduced costs and improved reliability. We have also taken the opportunity of training the Technical Operations team in continuous improvement, workplace organisation and lean manufacturing techniques to support the continuing development of our capabilities. Our expanded materials control team have established the processes supporting expansion into Europe. These new processes have also driven up inventory accuracy and have had a positive effect on the quality of our planning and schedule adherence in shipping to our customers. 14 Optos plc Annual Report & Accounts 2006
“He is very lucky – if the melanoma had been discovered six months later, he would most probably have lost his eye.” Dr Reinhold Reimer, Elmshorn, Germany Case Study 3: Elmshorn, Germany Early detection of a melanoma with the optomap® Retinal Exam. In May 2005, a 60 year-old man presented to Dr Reimer in Elmshorn, Germany for a regular eye exam. The patient had no known prior complications and had no signs or evidence of decreased visual acuity. After the optomap® Retinal Exam, the situation was very different. The optomap® Retinal Exam showed an abnormality which Dr Reimer diagnosed as a melanoma, which was then confirmed by fluorescein angiography and sonography. Treatment with transpupil thermocoagulation was successful. In this patient case the melanoma was situated in the mid-periphery and therefore would have been difficult to detect with a routine eye examination. “The prevalence of melanoma is increasing due to the decrease of the ozone barrier and the increase of UV-lighting,” said Dr Reimer. “They are difficult to diagnose with traditional methods as they often lie in the middle and outer periphery. Thus a patient-friendly procedure like the optomap® Retinal Exam which does not require pupil dilation and which can take a wide-field image of the retina in a single capture is a great tool in detecting disease earlier.” “The two lasers in the P200 enable me to say whether the lesion lies exclusively in the retina or the choroid. I can then make a certain differentiation between a naevus and melanoma and appropriately determine next steps - this is a great advantage of the procedure,” said Dr Reimer. “He is very lucky - if the melanoma had been discovered six months later, he would most probably have lost his eye.” Optos plc Annual Report & Accounts 2006 15
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Optos plc Annual Report & Accounts
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Annual Report and Accounts 2006 - Optos

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