In a milestone achievement, Memphasys has landed the first sale of the company’s revolutionary trademarked Felix bio-separation technology placed by a women’s centre in Coimbatore, India. The centre will be the first to use the system for clinical IVF with the order including a Felix console plus an initial supply of single-use cartridges. The Felix business model is based on recurring sales of the cartridges so the initial sale may represent ongoing business.
Felix is essentially a medical device that “cleans up” sperm during the IVF process and only allows the better-quality specimens to be harvested.
The company hopes the Felix system will be used routinely in clinical IVF practices to produce embryos and subsequent implantations that then lead to pregnancies.
Studies undertaken by the Coimbatore Women’s Centre in India, which have decided to purchase the system, concluded that Felix-produced embryos were of equal or better quality to those produced by their current methods of sperm separation.
The Women’s Centre plan to use Felix on its male customers with sperm quality issues typically consisting of approximately 40 per cent of its case load. The centre performs up to 30 fresh IVF cycles per month.
Memphasys expects supplementary purchases of the Felix device from the Coimbatore centre as establishment of the system progresses and the number of cycles becomes more predictable.
The first commercial sale of the desk top Felix console and the initial batch of single use cartridges represent an important milestone for the company as India was previously identified as a key ‘early market’.
Each single-use cartridge is used to process the semen sample and can select the sperm with the least DNA damage. Once processed the sperm is ready for use in IVF procedures in six minutes.
Memphasys says Felix distinguishes itself from traditional sperm separation technologies by providing a six-minute processing time as opposed to 30 minutes or more for traditional “swim-up” and “centrifuge” methods.
According to the NSW-based bio-separations company, Felix has also shown it can be used on a wider variety of semen samples, it requires fewer witnesses to be present during technical bio-separation process and it consistently selects cells with low levels of DNA fragmentation.
Memphasys launched a key opinion leader or “KOL” in vitro study where 13 reproductive centres across the globe conducted studies on the Felix device with the Coimbatore centre being one of them.
The Coimbatore Women’s Centre was established more than 30 years ago and has a chain of fertility centres located across four regional cities in southern India. The centre caters for a wide range of women’s’ health needs in addition to operating a male reproductive health reference centre, which conducted the KOL testing.
Memphasys Executive Chairman, Alison Coutts said:
“This is very exciting. It is the first time the Felix™ System will be put to routine clinical use, to produce embryos for implantation and pregnancies. Whilst it is a small cartridge volume order to begin with, the Felix revenue model is based on the subsequent recurring sales of the cartridges.”
“The Womens Centre have been a great KOL trial partner. They do meticulous work and are deeply interested in assessing the performance of the Felix device. This sale represents a further strengthening of this relationship.”
“Memphasys has advanced commercial discussions with other IVF clinics in the ‘early markets’, including other sites in India, and is confident of securing further clinical sales to other IVF clinics in Q1 2022.”
The recurring sales model of the single use semen cartridges provides an ongoing revenue stream for the company looking beyond the actual device sale. Breaking into a global heavyweight market like India is a huge deal that may get a few more sets of eyes on the device and set the scene for further potential sales across India and beyond.
Memphasys may have taken its most significant step in a journey of a thousand miles with the first commercial sale of Felix. That the sale was made into one of the largest markets on earth is also no small beer. Given the sheer size of the market, if the company can continue its run in India and abroad, the sale of Felix to the Coimbatore Women’s Centre in India should stand as a watershed moment in the evolution of Memphasys.
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By Matt Birney
