News
Milestone Scientific’s Epidural & IA Subsidiary and Moss S.p.A. Sign Exclusive Distribution Agreement for Epidural Instrument in Italy
Announces Plans to Broaden U.S. Distribution Strategy
LIVINGSTON, NJ, June 10, 2015 -- Milestone Scientific Inc. (NYSE MKT: MLSS), a medical R&D company that designs, patents, incubates and commercializes a growing portfolio of innovative injection technologies, today announced that its Epidural & Intra-Articular (IA) Subsidiary has entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with Moss S.p.A. for distribution of the epidural instrument in Italy. Moss is one of the leading distributors of diagnostic and specialty surgery equipment in Italy.
The term of the agreement between Milestone Scientific’s Epidural & IA subsidiary and MOSS S.p.A. is three years and includes annual minimum purchases of epidural instruments and disposable kits. Milestone will provide sales literature, organize training classes and provide product, while Moss S.p.A. will be responsible for sales and marketing support, including advertising, product placement in catalogs, product displays and trade exhibits. MOSS has also committed to hiring 15 sales representatives dedicated to the sale of the epidural instrument within the first year.
Leonard Osser, Chief Executive Officer of Milestone Scientific commented, “Italy is a viable market for our epidural instrument with over 1 million epidurals administered for surgery per year and over 60,000 epidurals administered for childbirth. Since its founding in 2000, Moss has demonstrated its ability to assess market needs and to successfully address those needs with innovative products in the medical arena. Moss’ extensive distribution capabilities in Italy will benefit Milestone and we are pleased to have them as our exclusive distribution partner in the region.”
The Epidural & IA Subsidiary also announced plans to broaden its U.S. distribution strategy beyond the current focus on labor and delivery markets.
Mr. Osser continued, “While our prior distribution partner in the U.S. maintains a solid network within birthing centers across the U.S., we’ve decided after discussion with other distributors in the pain management sector that an exclusive arrangement in this arena was too limiting given the overlap between anesthesiologists in private clinics and hospitals. These practitioners have the ability to use our instrument for both labor and delivery, as well as other pain management applications. In the U.S. alone, there are 8.9 million annual procedures that fall outside of the labor and delivery segment, many in private pain management clinics. As a result, the company believes a build out of a network of regional distribution partners whose strengths include hospitals, clinics and pain management centers will give us far greater penetration in the broader U.S. market. We look forward to announcing these partnerships in the coming months and believe that this strategy will result in greater market penetration within the respective regions. At the same time, our U.S. trials are moving forward and we look forward to announcing additional milestones in the near future.”
