Oliver Hunt: Medsalv CEO on gaining Pharmac approval for their remanufactured single-use products

A Kiwi start up has been going gangbusters across the ditch. 

Medsalv remanufactures single-use medical products, cleaning and disinfecting them so they can be safely reused. 

After eight years in business, their products have been approved by Pharmac for use in New Zealand. 

CEO Oliver Hunt told Mike Hosking it's been done in America for a while, but they’re really bringing it to the rest of the world, Australia and New Zealand in particular, now.  

The range of products they can remanufacture is pretty substantial, he says, and they can clean products up to 14 times at a significantly lower cost than the original products. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The health sector where a key we start up, mid
Solve has been going well in Australia. Their thing is
re manufacturing single use medical products. Right now. The good
news here is Farmacs finally accepted their products onto our
medical device list. Now all of a Hunt, CEO of
mid Solvers with us Oliver, very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Morning Rake.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Has it been an arduous journey with farmk.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, we've had our challenges, but it's great to be
on the list finally after operating in New Zealds for
coming up on eight years.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
What do you re manufacture? Literally?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
So we take products like deban thrombosis prevention sleeves that
go around your legs after or during surgery, cleaning them,
test them and then send them back to hospitals for
safe clinical reuse. And we can do that up to
fourteen times in New Zealand and at a significantly lower
price than the original products.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
So what's been the problem in holding that up? When
you go to farmac and go look what I can do?
When they say what, Well, Pharmik.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Has gone about a process of contracting all of the
products in the health estimate it's about two hundred and
forty five of those and they've done that category by
category and haven't reopened those contracts once they were locked down.
So for many of those contracts, they were locked down
before we even existed, and there haven't been any avenues
through which we can enter that.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
And so are you new in terms of this technology
to re manufacture? Therefore, this is going to revolutionize the
throwaway mentality in the health system and therefore the sooner
we get onto this the better. Or has this always
been available in you're just another version of what people
have been doing for ages.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
We're very new in the global sense. It's been done
in America for a while, but we're really bringing it
to the rest of the world into Australia and New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Now how wide a product range can you do?

Speaker 2 (01:43):
It's pretty substantial. I mean the label single use has
been applied to a huge number of products that were
originally reusable or in some form able to be used
multiple times. So it's an expanding impact field.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
If you liked there was the other thing to go
to ask. So though there are more and more products,
the technology is advancing, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, absolutely, and it's going to get bigger and bigger
as you start to see more complicated devices coming out
and robots and things like that as well. But you know,
obviously you have to be able to adopt it. But yeah,
I mean that's one of the benefits. But the other
thing is, you know, we're a process driven by people,
and we've been able to create a process that we
employed people facing barriers to employment in that which has

(02:21):
a tremendous benefit from and direct economic competents.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
So you'll win win when win win plan sorry, three ones,
you'll win when win.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Absolutely good. Well, there's a lot of ones to be head.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
There so many ones. Well I had three at last count.
So how many millions we talk? We're talking millions, tens
of millions, hundreds of million dollars and potential savings.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, when I started out, I worked backwards from what
could be done in America and I came up with
a number of one hundred million dollars in New Zealand
of the products that we use. But we're a long
way away from America, so we're paying more for our
devices and that is a fact. We're paying more than
out for our devices and Australia as well, So there's
great opportunity there. And if you can do it locally
and provide the jobs here, the good benefits to be had.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Great story, all well done. Appreciate it very much and
Glad Glad Farmax come to the party. Oliba Hunt He's
the CEO of mid Self. He's he's in chargeable, Win win,
win when win company.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
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