I-Flow Upping Sales Bid for Pain Device
By VITA REED
I-Flow Corp. of Lake Forest said it is looking to what it calls as a “simple yet elegant” medical device to change the way post-surgical pain is managed.
“We believe regional anesthesia can replace narcotics,” said Donald Earhart, the device maker’s chief executive, during last week’s Roth Capital Partners LLC’s investor conference in Dana Point.
I-Flow’s On-Q,a small balloon-like device that attaches to a catheter,delivers a non-narcotic, local anesthetic to a specific part of the body.
On-Q’s target market includes hospitals and outpatient surgery centers, along with surgeons and anesthesiologists.
I-Flow plans to beef up its On-Q efforts by hiring more than 20 sales representatives this year. Last year, the company added more than 30 representatives.
“There are still a large number of physicians who are interested in (On-Q), yet cannot be physically reached by our existing sales force,” Earhart said.
“We think it has a lot of potential,” said Jason Kroll, Roth’s medical device analyst, of On-Q. “We estimate that there are 60 million operations in the U.S. and about 25% of them could benefit from On-Q.”
Previously, I-Flow marketed On-Q through a pact with Ethicon Endo-Surgery, part of Johnson & Johnson.
Getting doctors to use On-Q will “not be an easy task,” Kroll said. Narcotic painkillers are a mainstay for postoperative pain, he said.
I-Flow also recently debuted two variants of On-Q: On-Q C-bloc, which provides continuous nerve blocks near an incision site, and On-Q Elite for use in outpatient surgery centers. Those products fall under Medicare reimbursement codes.
The On-Q product line made up some $12 million worth of I-Flow’s $38 million in revenue last year. Intravenous drug infusion devices made up $15.8 million of sales.
I-Flow, which was founded in 1985 and employs around 170 people, counted a market value of $40 million at recent check.
The device maker is “finishing clinical studies because that gives us credibility,” Earhart said.
I-Flow now has 47 ongoing clinical studies for its products.
The company’s competitors include Abbott Laboratories Inc. and Baxter International Inc., both of suburban Chicago, San Diego-based Alaris Medical Inc. and Stryker Corp. of Kalamazoo, Mich.
