Business Spotlight Podcast
Recently you may have seen that Medtechtomarket launched ‘The Diagnostic Lab’ – The Medtechtomarket podcast. The main reason for doing this is to showcase the knowledge of our experienced team to discuss the medical diagnostics development issues that matter.
It also helps that we can call on the help of John Storton, who professionally produces a range of podcasts when he’s not looking after our website and social media content! So while we were filming and recording Episode 1: The Importance of TRLs we decided to record a bonus episode of the Yellow Spider Media Business Spotlight podcast – a chance to highlight what we do and what makes us special.
Although John is well up to speed with what we do to in terms of accelerated IVD development, we approached this podcast as a beginners guide to Medtechtomarket:
Full transcript:
John Storton: Welcome to the Yellow Spider Media Business Spotlight podcast. The chance for any business to discuss what they do and what makes them special. Today’s guest is Jack Fitzpatrick, business development manager at Medtechtomarket. Jack, thanks for joining me on the podcast today. You are a business development manager for Medtechtomarket, can you explain in one or two sentences what it is that you do?
Dr Jack Fitzpatrick: We essentially develop in vitro diagnostics on behalf of clients. So we can take them all the way from concept through to market launch. And the importance in ivds and medtech is you’ve got to get through the regulations because they’re very heavily regulated. So we help our clients, you know, ensure that their products past regulations and can be sold on the market.
John Storton: When I was looking on your website, I noticed that you had a lot of medical devices. Is there a difference between a medical device and a diagnostic?
Dr Jack Fitzpatrick: There are subtle differences. They’re very similar and we cover both. But there are actually two different sets of regulations. So there’s the medical device regulations and IVD regulations. So both are very focused on the safety and efficacy of the claims you’re making with that product. And yeah, we help with that.
John Storton: And in terms of definitions, a diagnostic helps to diagnose a disease. Whereas a medical device could be, I don’t know, an elastoplast or a plaster technically?
Dr Jack Fitzpatrick Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So an IVD is a form of a medical device. So medical devices just have any medical application. But a diagnostic specifically detects something that then can inform a clinical decision.
John Storton: And what would you say the majority of your projects are. Is there a heavy weighting towards one particular technology or not?
Dr Jack Fitzpatrick: Yeah. So I’d say in our business, the majority of our projects do fall in a diagnostic spectrum. So probably ninety percent of our projects are diagnostics. And within that, obviously lateral flow has become a huge thing, especially since Covid. So we do a lot of lateral flow projects, but we also cover things such as ELISAs PCR tests, which again were very common in Covid and we do point of care devices. So including the electronic readers and any cartridges and things like that.
John Storton: So you say you develop both medical devices and diagnostics. What stage of the process do you cover?
Dr Jack Fitzpatrick: So we actually essentially offer an end to end service. So we do cover the entire journey of a product. Clients come to us at different stages. So sometimes they’ve done a little bit themselves at the beginning. Um, and again, we work with projects of any stage. So sometimes we’ll go from the very beginning of a concept. Sometimes we’ll be taking technology that’s been validated in a university and they validate it in the lab. And then we’ll actually take it on and, you know, turn it into a regulated product. So any stage really.
John Storton: And we’ve spoken about this in our prep work yesterday, and also I’ve seen the technology readiness levels page on your website. So there is a format isn’t there, to a product development or a diagnostic development. And what you’re saying is you can step in at any of those stages.
Dr Jack Fitzpatrick: Yeah, absolutely. So the TRLs are used across different industries. But yeah, in our in our industry, it is used. So TRLs one to nine, nine being on the market, one being an idea. And we can help people at any stage of that spectrum.
John Storton: Who’s more likely to be in touch with you about you helping with a project? Is it the academic researchers? Is it investors? Is it a corporation or is it all of the above?
Dr Jack Fitzpatrick: It’s a mixed bag really and a bit of everyone. So we do a lot of translation work with universities and academics, and we help them take their technology through to a productised format, you know, onto the market. We do a lot of business to business work. And that can range from start ups, sometimes only one or two people and SMEs. And we also do work with large corporations as well. And again, sometimes investors will reach out to us and we can help them. We can help support any companies that they’ve invested in, and in the medtech and diagnostics space. And because it is in medtech, the clues in the title really – medtech to market!
John Storton: You’re not just productising for the sake of making somebody loads of money though, are you? You’re literally changing the world.
Dr Jack Fitzpatrick:. Absolutely. I mean, you know, people sometimes think productisation is about selling and making money, but actually in our industry and with the regulations, it’s all about safety and efficacy. So it’s ensuring that a product is not only safe for use, but that it’s doing what it claims. Because if you’re a diagnostic that claims to diagnose a lethal condition and it gets it wrong, the results of that can literally be death. So we’ve got to ensure that all these products are made standard.
John Storton: And how do you make sure you reach those standards?
Dr Jack Fitzpatrick: So we operate under a regulation called ISO13:485. And all that means is we have a quality management system in place that is specifically designed around medical devices and in vitro diagnostics. And that’s actually a requirement to, to develop any products like diagnostics and medtech. You must operate a thirteen forty-five QMS system.
John Storton: You’re not just a sounding board, though, are you? I’m here at the facility today. You’ve got the production facilities here on site. You’ve got the laboratories here on site. You’ve got the management team here on site. And a one-stop-shop probably does you a bit of a disservice. But you know, you can do it all can’t you?
Dr Jack Fitzpatrick: Yeah, absolutely. So again, we, you know, we moved into our facility around four years ago and we had it bespoke made specifically so we could offer our clients the full spectrum. So we have Biohazardous development labs. We have a production facility warehousing, and again the project management offices all under one building. So that also means that we can be quite efficient and dynamic and we’re not slowed down by, you know, bureaucratic processes that might plague some of the some of the bigger institutions.
John Storton: And you’re based in Bromborough on the Wirral. Is it just UK based or northwest based businesses that you that you work with or is it global?
Dr Jack Fitzpatrick: We work globally. So obviously there is a focus in the UK and us being in the northwest. We’re very close with our partners here, but we work globally. So we’ve recently been awarded contracts with US clients. We work quite closely with some Japanese companies, some large companies over in Japan. And again, previously we’ve worked in Europe, Asia, South America. So definitely a global business.
John Storton: You’re working with clients across the globe. But the Liverpool City Region is a bit of a centre for excellence in terms of life sciences, um infectious diseases. So how important is it for you to be part of that ecosystem?
Dr Jack Fitzpatrick: Well exactly. This is very important. And this is why, you know, we love the region that we’re in. So obviously you’ve got the universities, you know, University of Liverpool, John Moores Hope, etc. and there’s also LSTM – the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. So yeah, for us, it’s really important to try and connect and collaborate with local partners. And I think that’s also a focus of the Liverpool City region and, you know, local authority at the moment. So that’s something where we definitely have a strong focus on.
John Storton: Are there any big wins you want to talk about? Any recent headlines you’ve been involved in?
Dr Jack Fitzpatrick: Yeah, we have recently been working with University of Birmingham and have developed an ELISA and lateral flow for Mpox. And we have actually recently been featured in a publication in The Lancet to do with that project. So that was, you know, a really big win for us. And we were really pleased with the outcomes of that project. And we’ve also been awarded some contracts recently. I can’t go into detail, but it was with a US client, and that’s for a liver health diagnostic, which we’re excited to start.
John Storton: Lovely. I read about the Mpox project actually, with the University of Birmingham. From my basic understanding, it was, um, making sure that you could test immunity in Rwanda, wasn’t it? So what’s the benefit of doing it there rather than in a laboratory here?
Dr Jack Fitzpatrick: So again, I mean, this is almost back to what we were saying about, you know, testing products in, in the environment they need to be used in and making sure they work. So it’s a point of care test, which is really important to actually get it near the people that it is going to benefit. And testing the immunity allows us to see if people have been vaccinated. And so actually it’s being used in a vaccination program to prioritise people without the immunity and get them vaccinated, which then ensures community safety against the virus.
John Storton: So again, it’s a great example of changing lives, isn’t it? Doing good in the world. Is that why you got into science in general?
Dr Jack Fitzpatrick: Yeah, I mean, absolutely. And I think everyone that works here, you know, everyone’s really passionate and interested in the projects we work on because they do have real effects and they improve health around the world.
John Storton: Lovely. Well, thanks very much for coming on today, Jack. It’s been really good to learn about Medtechtomarket and what you do. And, um, yeah. Thanks again.
Dr Jack Fitzpatrick: Yeah. My pleasure.
VO: Thanks for listening to the Yellow Spider Media Business Spotlight podcast. If you’d like to be a guest on the show, please get in touch at www.yellowspidermedia.com