Michael Kavanagh, chief of Sydney-based infection prevention company Nanosonics, hopes to see his company grow into another great Australian tech story.
“I’d like to follow in my footsteps from (former employer) Cochlear,” he explained in an article in the Australian on Dec. 31. “Lots of people know about Cochlear as a great technology success story for Australia and I fundamentally believe that can be the same for Nanosonics.”
‘Nanosonics, through technology developed in Australia, has produced probe sterilisation equipment it calls a Trophon unit. It uses high-frequency sonic vibrations to disinfect an ultrasound probe, replacing a historic disinfection method that involves strong chemicals.’
“Our goal with this technology is to establish it as standard of care,” said Mr Kavanagh. “Where wipes or immersion in toxic chemistry is being used, we want that replaced with the adoption of our technology.”
There’s no denying Nanosonic’s product has global appeal ‘given infections associated with the provision of healthcare is one of the biggest causes of death’, and so far that appeal has translated into solid interest.
In fact, Nanosonics ‘is fast firming into a global leader position in its field.’
The Trophon is approved for use in all major markets around the world — the US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea – and Mr Kavanagh said Nanosonics has ‘already attracted some of the world’s biggest brands to its product.’ At the time of print, GE Healthcare, Toshiba and Miele Professional has signed on as distributors.
While GE Healthcare also had an exclusive deal for the distribution of Nanosonics’ technology in the US, Nanosonics has now set up its own direct operations to the country in order to reach a wider market.
Of course, Mr Kavanagh said the company has a long way to go. “Today we only play in a small slice of the global market for infection prevention control but our goal is to play a much bigger part over time,” he stated.
Still Nanosonic’s success up to this point is notable. “We are now in the ASX 300, with a market cap of just under half a billion dollars,” said Mr Kavanagh. “It wasn’t long ago we were a $50 million market cap.”