HealthBeacon, the Dublin-based medical technology company, issued a sales warning on Wednesday, saying delays in securing computer chips have temporarily held up production of devices that help patients stick to injection routines.
The company, which floated on Euronext Dublin last December, said the delays meant the company would be able to deploy only 15,000 of its digital sharps bins this year. It has also had to push out by three months the timeline of its key target of having 100,000 of the devices in the market, to the end of March 2024. Shares in the company fell more than 15 per cent.
HealthBeacon, which was founded in 2013, has developed a digital sharps bin aimed at making it easier for patients injecting themselves with medicines at home to stick to their medication schedule. Its devices are digitally connected to individuals’ smartphones and are used for the disposal of injector pens and syringes and tracking of individual patients’ adherence to medication regimes. The system will also remind people to stick with their course of medicine, if necessary.
The company, led by chief executive and co-founder Jim Joyce, said it expected to have its supply chain challenges resolved by the fourth quarter of this year.
HealthBeacon said in investor presentations around the time of its €25 million initial public offering (IPO) last year that it expected its number of deployed units to grow from about 10,200 in 2021 to 35,000-60,000 units this year, before rising to 100,000 in 2023.
The company’s main distribution channel to date has been through deals with pharmaceutical companies, including Sanofi, Novartis and Teva, that cover the cost of the devices. It has also expanded recently into selling units directly to consumers in the US through home appliances distributor Hamilton Beach Brands, and is developing a sales channel where costs are reimbursed by health insurance programmes.
Mr Joyce said early last month that uneven reopening of economies from lockdown has led to all sorts of supply chain issues and inflation across everything from plastics to computer chips and transport used by HealthBeacon. However, he said the key target of having 100,000 units deployed by the end of 2023 remained in sight.
“Our product is transforming the management of patients on critical injectable medications and our ambition to be a global leader in adherence devices is being realised. Despite these near-term challenges, the company is well positioned for growth in 2023 and beyond,” Mr Joyce said in the statement on Wednesday.
Analysts at Goodbody Stockbrokers, which managed the company’s IPO last year, said in a note: “While the statement from HealthBeacon this morning is clearly disappointing, we would point to the supply nature of the delay, with constraints in terms of chip components a constraint across industry in general.”
Shares in HealthBeacon were off 33 per cent from their IPO price on Wednesday.
