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Finding a niche
in the health market PROVIDENCE — The products piled on the boardroom table don’t bring to mind a hospital or doctor’s office: cleverly designed plastic lunch boxes, salad shakers and brightly colored water bottles that generate a third of MEDport’s annual sales. But the small Providence design and manufacturing
firm has also invented devices that put the ‘MED’ in MEDport,
including digital thermometers, blood-pressure monitors and a line of
carrying cases for diabetics to transport their treatment tools. Now, with the incidence of diabetes on
the rise, MEDport is looking to expand in the medical supply business.
The company recently redesigned the carrying cases and it introduced a container approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the disposal of needles. The Sharps “On the Go” Transport and Disposal Product debuted at Wal-Mart stores in October. “Diabetes is such a huge market,”
Larry Wesson, MEDport’s chief executive officer, said. “We’re
trying to make managing health easier for consumers.” MEDport has high hopes for the Sharps product,
which the company says is the only FDA-approved device of its kind. Each
year, about 3 billion injections take place outside health-care facilities.
Many of the disposable needles are tossed in garbage cans or flushed down
toilets, putting sanitation and wastewater treatment staff at risk of
injury or infection, according to the company. “People are injecting more away from
home,” said Brian Carey, MEDport’s executive vice president
of sales and marketing, “and there are not a lot of good solutions
out there.” The growth in the number of injections
does not appear to be slowing, as more Americans are diagnosed with diabetes
and require multiple insulin injections daily. Diabetes inhibits the body’s
ability to produce or properly use insulin, a hormone that helps convert
sugar, starches and other food into energy. The American Diabetes Association estimates
that 20.8 million Americans have diabetes. In Rhode Island, about 90,000
people had diabetes in 2004, a 70-percent increase from 1996, according
to a report by the Diabetes Prevention and Control Program at the state
Department of Health. But like most states, Rhode Island has
not passed stringent regulations regarding the disposal of syringes. The
absence of legislation, and the refusal of most insurance companies to
cover the cost of needle disposal products, could shrink the market for
MEDport’s device, according to Jennifer Schumann, executive director
of the Coalition of Safe Community Needle Disposal. “If the general population has to
pay for them, it really is limiting,” said Schumann, who runs the
nonprofit advocacy group in Houston. “That’s the greatest
challenge. There are great products out there. The problem is, will they
be purchased?” So far, MEDport says, its Sharps product
has injected a strong stream of revenue. The privately held company does
not disclose its revenue, but says it has produced 574,352 of the waterproof,
hard-plastic cases, to be sold individually or included in its diabetes
carrying cases. Stores have already called with additional orders. Diabetics inject insulin as many as six
times a day, primarily using disposable needles. A range of other conditions
may also require at-home injections, including hepatitis and arthritis. “We’re making them as fast
as we can right now,” Wesson said. The slender cases — 6.5 inches long
and weighing about 1.1 ounce — have a permanently locking lid that
secures the needle until it is discarded. They sell for $6 for a pack
of six or $8 for 12 on the MEDport Web site, www.medportllc.com. “Mechanically, it’s really
quite indestructible,” Chuck Miga, MEDport’s executive vice
president of global operations, said. In all, MEDport, founded in 1996, manufactures
60 products sold through its brands or provided to other companies. It
is headquartered in a red brick building on Acorn Street, next to a steel
company and opposite the lunchtime perch of a Guatemalan food truck. MEDport
has 28 employees, 23 in Rhode Island. For a company its size, MEDport manufactures
a diverse range of products. Its Fit and Fresh line, including lunch containers
that help with portion control, is growing rapidly. The Sharps container has a more narrowly
defined audience. But Cherie Fisher, executive director of the Diabetes
Foundation of Rhode Island, said she expects diabetics to embrace the
technology. The Sharps container, Fisher said, “is a good product. It’s easy to carry and it’s safe. Most people, when they find out this is a problem, really try to do the right thing.”
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