Visiomed appoints Italian distributor

Nedlands-based medical device manufacturer Visiomed Group Ltd has appointed Italian medical distributor Siem Nova Srl to supply its Funhaler asthma spacer and accessories to the Italian market.

The full text of a company announcement is pasted below

Visiomed announced today that is has signed on medical distributor Siem Nova Srl to supply its Funhaler®paediatric incentive asthma spacer and accessories to the Italian market.

Appointment of a distributor for Italy follows closely previously announced appointments of distributors for France and Belgium in Europe and Brazil in South America.

Siem-Nova, based in Milanofiori-Rozzano Italy, has committed to a minimum initial order of 6,000 Funhaler units during Year 1 of the Agreement, worth approximately A$125,000; the Agreement calls for a doubling of committed orders during Years 2 and 3.

Siem-Nova is one of Italy's premier providers of specialist medical equipment & supplies to the clinical and homecare markets with particular speciality in respiratory markets. Siem-Nova will distribute the Funhaler product to pharmacies, physician clinics and hospitals.

The Funhaler, designed specifically for children, incorporates auditory and visual incentive feedback modules that encourage children to take their asthma medication in accordance with clinical prescriptions.

Visiomed Chief Executive Officer Dr William Dolphin said: "With the appointment of a high calibre respiratory distributor in Italy the Company continues to make significant inroads into the European market. In recent months we have added distributors for our products in major European, Middle Eastern and South American markets.

Visiomed continues to execute to plan. Cornerstones in the company's strategic plan include improvement to manufacture, protection of intellectual property and expansion into overseas markets; key milestones in each of these areas have been achieved in recent months.

We will be further increasing our international distribution in upcoming months and the Company is well positioned to gain significant market share in 2007."

Italy is ranked as the world's sixth-largest market economy with a GDP of approximately US$1.78 trillion, belongs to the Group of Eight (G-8) industrialized nations and is a member of the European Union and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Like most industrialized nations, Italy has a reported asthma rate of 12 ­ 15% with a paediatric asthma population of approximately 2.5million children as potential users of the Funhaler range of products.