Brisbane-based LTR Medical secures exclusive distributor agreement

MedTech News: Brisbane-based LTR Medical secures exclusive distributor agreement for Medovate’s SAFIRA (SAFer Injection for Regional Anaesthesia) in Australia and New Zealand.

Developed in collaboration with anaesthetists, SAFIRA is set to help revolutionise standard regional anaesthesia clinical practice. With the use of regional anaesthesia continuing to grow significantly in Australia and New Zealand, SAFIRA has the potential to make a significant impact.

Amid the current COVID-19 pandemic, recent publications have recommended regional anaesthesia be considered whenever surgery is planned for a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patient. This is because regional anaesthesia preserves respiratory function and avoids aerosolisation and the potential for transmission of COVID-19 compared to general anaesthesia.

Already launched across the United States, this distribution agreement to bring SAFIRA to market in Australia and New Zealand marks a significant further step in making this new medical technology available to healthcare providers to help deliver improved patient care and cost saving benefits.

Chris Rogers, Sales and Marketing Director, Medovate, said “We are delighted to have reached agreement with LTR Medical who have the necessary experience in bringing innovative new medical devices to market, which was a key consideration for us. This partnership will now ensure that the clinical, patient safety and cost savings benefits that we believe SAFIRA offers will now be available to regional anaesthetists in Australia and New Zealand. Medovate are looking forward to working with Lee, Danny and the wider LTR Medical team.”

Danny Zanardo, VP Commercial LTR Medical, commented “The team at LTR Medical are excited to partner with Medovate and bring SAFIRA to Anaesthetists and patients in the Australian and New Zealand Markets. We believe the SAFIRA technology is disruptive in context of improving workflow, improving safety and reducing risk in regional anaesthesia techniques. We look forward to a long term collaboration with Medovate.”

The new SAFIRA device revolutionises current practice in a number of ways. First, it makes the current two-person procedure a one-person procedure by giving anaesthetists full control and frees up resources.

The technology also incorporates a unique safety feature that helps reduce the risk of nerve damage as anaesthetic is prevented from being injected at pressures above 20psi. This reduces the need for follow up management of nerve damage.