CytoSorbents Corp. (NSDQ:CTSO) and Fresenius Medical Care (NYSE:FMS) said today that the 2 companies have expanded the terms of their partnership and added a co-marketing agreement for the CytoSorb blood adsorber in countries where the therapy is available.
According to the 3-year agreement, CytoSorbents extended Fresenius’ exclusive distributorship of the device for critical care applications in France, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway through 2019. In these countries, Fresenius will develop a CytoSorb CRRT kit that will include its compatible blood tubing set and it must meet minimum quarterly orders and payments.
The co-marketing agreement mandates that the 2 companies will jointly market CytoSorb and Frensenius’ compatible blood tubing sets to FMC’s critical care customer base in the countries where Cytosorb is actively commercialized. Fresenius will be responsible for identifying new CytoSorb sales opportunities and will make customer introductions with CytoSorbents and its distributors. The companies said that they anticipate the co-marketing program will begin in the 2nd half of this year.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“CytoSorb is an integral part of FMC’s acute care growth strategy and we are delighted to renew and enhance our commitment to CytoSorbents and this important therapy,” Fresenius Medical Care’s VP of therapy marketing Christian Schlaeper said in prepared remarks. “With our significant sales and marketing capabilities throughout the world, we plan to accelerate awareness, adoption, and usage of CytoSorb. This is a win-win scenario, giving our doctors access to an important therapy to help save the lives of their critically-ill patients, while increasing the utilization of our large international installed base of multiFiltrate and multiFitratePRO machines, and driving usage of our own disposables. We have enjoyed an excellent relationship with CytoSorbents to date, and look forward to this next chapter of our partnership.”
“This revised multi-year agreement with FMC, the global leader in dialysis, brings our partnership to the world stage and is expected to result in many synergies on both sides,” CytoSorbents’ VP of business development Chris Cramer added. “In particular, the support of CytoSorb by FMC’s world-class sales and marketing teams will significantly augment the coverage of our existing direct sales and distributor efforts in many of the current 42 counties where CytoSorb is being commercialized today. In addition, we will have the ability to bring this program and its benefits to new CytoSorb territories as they are added in the future. The anticipated access to many new FMC physician relationships under this agreement is predicted to spark strong interest and excitement in the therapy, helping to power future sales growth of both CytoSorb and FMC’s multiFiltrate and multiFiltratePRO platforms. This agreement is a major milestone in the evolution of our partnership.”
