Innovation in Biotechnology: Biotech Top 50
Kimal® are a developer, manufacturer and supplier of customised procedure packs and vascular access devices for use across a wide variety of clinical departments including cardiology, radiology, critical care, anaesthesia, laparoscopy, and cardiac surgery. As a proudly independent company, our responsiveness and agility, combined with strong partnership and collaboration ethos, make us a supplier of choice to health organisations the world over.
In recent years, Kimal have invested heavily in bringing unique, disruptive technology to a market where little or no progress in terms of research and development to the betterment of the patient and clinician has been made. A good example of this is the Kimal Altius® CVC programme.
From Kimal Plc’s experience, the central venous catheter market had become extremely commoditised, and there were many “me too” products available. Altius® offers infection protection, reduced risk of air embolism, an advanced antimicrobial bonded solution and unique manufacturing technology that creates perfectly round colour-coded lumens thereby providing laminar flow.
Kimal’s CVC technology is now being developed even further with sensors to tackle Sepsis, one of the biggest killers in hospital today. Every year in the UK there are 150,000 cases of Sepsis, resulting in a staggering 44,000 deaths – more than bowel, breast and prostate cancer combined. For each hour that goes by without a diagnosis, the mortality rate rises by 8%.
In order to support this fight against Septsis, Kimal have invested heavily in their own fully equipped innovation cell which was officially opened in December 2015. Furthermore, Kimal have been able to attract funding in the form of government grants from InnovateUK for projects, which has enabled us to move much more speedily on projects and work with some leading hospitals and clinicians such as Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and Dr. Ron Daniels BEM, CEO of the UK Sepsis Trust as well as the Global Sepsis Alliance and Clinical Adviser to NHS England.
Additionally, a dedicated R&D team known as VasTec run and monitor these projects. The VasTec group is headed up by Alan Press, Kimal’s CEO and who is widely known for his passion within the industry.
At the heart of Kimal is our passion for delivering innovative solutions and exceeding our customers’ expectations. Indeed, Kimal’s clients in the UK are served by a dedicated team of sales executives who regularly meet with them to discuss their requirements. These clients could be part of the NHS, or situated in the private sector, and most cases it is the clinical teams rather than procurement who take on this task.
As such, Kimal prides itself on its relationships with clinicians as ultimately they are our window into the medical world. For the global customers we serve, the firm has direct operations in France, Germany, the Netherlands and the Middle East. Additionally, for those countries where Kimal are not directly located in, the company has a worldwide network of distributors.
Regular training sessions and distributor meetings are used to keep quality lines of communication open to ensure our distributors and their customers are fully conversant with Kimal and its portfolio. Should the need for queries or information requests be necessary, then Kimal have excellent product managers at their disposal.
Even though it appears there is a huge interest and increased expansion into the biotechnology arena, it is still a comparatively new field. It seems like science fiction from one of the films we all watched in our youth, but major advances are being made in human genomes, nanotechnology and organic computing.
Despite the many possibilities provided by the field of biotechnology, the resistance to change is always a challenge in terms of bringing new innovative technology to the market place. There is the old adage “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, and this is a rule some live by. For Kimal, the innovations speak for themselves and at the heart of the company is our undoubted passion for delivering innovative solutions and exceeding our customers’ expectations. The experienced sales team here are extensively trained every time a new product range is approved for sale, so that resistance to a new product can be tackled and so that the customer can make a fully informed decision.
With this in mind, the benefits of biotechnology are not necessarily limited to the medical industry. In a world with ever declining resources, the food and fuel industries are turning to biotech for sustainability in the future, but now that the trend is moving towards biotech it will soon be hard to imagine a world without it.
As a result of the continually evolving biotech sector, we are optimistic that Kimal Plc will continue to grow and prosper. The Kimal VasTec team have a research and development plan which will see at least three new innovative product launches in the next 5 years.
A roadmap has been set out to make Kimal one of the most innovative companies in the healthcare sector. 2017 will see the launch of the first in a range of sensor catheters which use cutting edge patented technology to aid in the early detection of Sepsis.
Company: Kimal Plc
Name: Steve Minett
Email: steve.minett@kimal.co.uk
Web: www.kimal.co.uk
Address: Unit 401 Pointon Way,
Stonebridge Cross Business
Park, Droitwich WR9 0LW
Phone: +44 (0)845 437 9542