Endomag reveals ambitious 2021 plans in the UK’s Daily Telegraph
Our CEO Dr Eric Mayes recently featured in one of the UK's biggest newspapers - the Daily Telegraph - to discuss the past, present and future of Endomag.
2020 has taught us to expect the unexpected. With a global pandemic casting a shadow over much of the year, a large number of businesses including ours have been forced to adapt quickly to support the industry that we serve.
Speaking with The Telegraph, Eric took a look back at the changes we made, how we were able to support the NHS and he shared his ambitious vision for the company over the next 12 months.
Helping patients receive the best standard of care
Earlier in the year, the pandemic forced UK breast cancer care to pivot, in many cases moving from large hospitals to smaller covid-free facilities. We knew that for essential breast cancer surgery this presented challenges.
Smaller units did not have regular access to nuclear medicine for breast cancer staging and blue dye risked potential adverse patient reactions. It was vitally important that these affected facilities could continue to offer access to the best standard of care available.
“Since they no longer had access to nuclear medicine, we suggested they use our Magtrace® lymphatic tracer. Everyone found it worked great.” Eric told The Telegraph.
“We realised this was something we could do to help the NHS, so we began giving Magtrace® away for free to hospitals. The uptake has been great from that.”
In collaboration with our UK distribution partner, Sysmex, we pledged over £150,000 worth of free vials of Magtrace® lymphatic tracer to the NHS and offered guidance and support to anyone that wanted it.
As the Magtrace® lymphatic tracer is activated by magnetism, it could be used by many more facilities that would have previously relied on nuclear medicine departments for radioisotopes. Most importantly, it meant that essential breast cancer treatment could continue during the pandemic.
Looking ahead to 2021
Eric told The Telegraph about Endomag’s preparations for the UK’s new start on 1st January 2021 as the Brexit transition period ends. Although many may worry about a slow down in border traffic, fortunately this will have little effect on the supply of both Magtrace®and our Magseed® marker products.
“There may be some initial headwinds but we’ve been in the European market for a number of years and have a good sense of what our distributors are likely to need in 2021”
He also explained how Endomag has taken steps to protect and build our highly specialised workforce here in Cambridge. In fact, we plan to rapidly expand next year, growing our team to more than 80 by the end of next year.
2020 certainly threw us a curveball but it has taught us to be prepared for anything.