Ambu and Xenocor over the past week each announced agreements with U.S. healthcare purchasing groups involving single-use scopes.
Ambu said on October 7 that it won a national single-use endoscopy contract in the single-use endoscope category of a “major U.S. group-purchasing organization.” The deal enables Ambu to serve a fifth of the acute care hospitals in the United States — and it comes more than a month after the Columbia, Md.–based company won a single-use endoscopy contract in the category of surgical disposable scopes with Premier.
“We welcome the decision to create a single-use endoscopy category and are looking forward to an exciting journey together bringing advanced single-use devices to hospitals and health care providers,” Ambu CEO Juan Jose Gonzalez said in a news release. “Ambu’s aspiration is to become the world’s most innovative single-use endoscopy company on the back of a comprehensive portfolio, unmatched innovation and attractive economics.”
Xenocor (Salt Lake City), meanwhile, forged a group purchasing agreement with Premier involving the company’s single-use Xenoscope in the surgical disposable scope category. Xenocor designed its disposable laparoscopic system to improve image quality, eliminate fogging, lower hospital costs and reduce biohazard risk for patients and staff.
“It hasn’t really been possible until recently to make these kinds of sophisticated devices in a single-use platform, so we feel it is indeed a breakthrough for the industry to make these technical advances readily available to serve patients, facilities and providers,” Xenocor CEO Evan Kelso said in an October 5 news release.
Also on October 5, Xenocor received an investment from the Mountain Pacific Venture Fund.
Single-use scopes are a hot area in medtech — with the interest heightened even more as the COVID-19 pandemic heightens worries about contamination even more.
