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Rex Bionics unveils initiatives to get sales moving

Last updated: 20:21 18 Dec 2014 AEDT, First published: 21:21 18 Dec 2014 AEDT

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REX Bionics (LON:RXB) has acknowledged that, despite the benefits its technology offers to wheelchair users, it needs to provide clinical data to get sales moving.

The company is taking steps to generate as rapidly as possible the clinical data required to persuade medical authorities to invest in what is undoubtedly fantastic but expensive technology.

In the meantime, it has become clear that sales in the period ending 31 March 2015 will be only a nominal amount, with some improvement expected in the ensuing six months, while a stronger growth trajectory is projected to kick-in towards the end of the 2015-16 fiscal year.

Rex plans to initiate the first of a number of clinical trials early next year.

In the US, it has brought forward a programme aimed at securing a pre-market notification, or 510(k), from the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for the use of REX’s robotic exoskeleton technology in the home.

REX is targeting securing 510(k) clearance by the end of the second quarter of 2016 that could then lead to clearance for at-home use in late 2016.

The company is also keen to generate evidence of progress with other projects that demonstrate the value of REX in accelerating the rehabilitation of patients who have experienced other traumatic or degenerative neurological injuries.

“This potential application is at least as large as the market for people with spinal cord injury,” the company said.

REX Bionics is also stepping up efforts to recruit distribution partners and pursuing other commercialisation initiatives.

The company has already started a global Reference Centre programme with Rehabilitation Clinics in the UK (PhysioFunction in Northampton), the USA (Houston Methodist Hospital, Texas and James J Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center, New York City), and New Zealand (Healthvision New Zealand, Auckland), and plans to continue to build this network to ten Reference Centres by the end of 2015.

Shares in the company, floated in May at 180p, virtually halved following the announcement to 72.45p, but chief executive officer Crispin Simon remains confident in the company’s ability “to turn this remarkable technology into a really valuable, high performance business”.

“Based on the positive feedback to date from the marketplace, and with the plans we have now put in place, I have every confidence that we can," he concluded.

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