Investment Highlights

• A revolutionary solution for intravenous medication safety.
• Laser verification of intravenous drugs, using analyser and consumables.
• Intravenous most common and most dangerous of hospital medications errors.
• 100% success for Veriphi analyser across 40 blind trials of 10 drugs in 4 containers with data measured across three temperatures.
• 7 Patent Families, 2 approved US patents, 1 additional US patent about to be granted.
• Imminent validation trial at Auckland City Hospital.
• Trials planned for other New Zealand hospitals and internationally in Melbourne and New York.
• Advisory team of some of New Zealand’s leaders in anaesthesia and medication safety.
• Long established relationships with potential global partners in IV medication delivery.
• Over NZ$6m invested to date.
• Highly experienced board and executive team.

Welcome to Veriphi

Veriphi is an exciting New Zealand medical device company that is seeking $400,000 - $2m to commercialise its revolutionary intravenous (IV) drug verification technology.

Medication error is the most common cause of patient harm in the hospital system, costing billions of dollars and thousands of lives globally. IV medication errors are more common, harmful and costly than errors from oral or other medications.

To be able to verify the actual contents of an IV bag or syringe prior to administration is the holy grail of medication safety, providing a level of safety beyond manual checks or bar-codes. Veriphi’s analyser uses lasers to do precisely this, confirming, prior to administration that the drug and concentration inside the syringe, IV bag or IV line, is the one the patient is supposed to receive.

The company’s revenue will come from the sale of analysers and consumables that allow the laser beam to pass through the drug for verification. Exponential growth will come as a result of recurring revenue, where Veriphi consumables are used every time a drug is verified across a rapidly expanding footprint of analysers.

Market entry will be initially focused on hospital pharmacies and medication rooms, where drugs are stored or compounded before being delivered to patients. The money raised will be used to translate existing analyser and consumable prototype designs into a commercial format for a trial on 15 oncology drugs at Auckland City Hospital. This clinical validation will lead to early sales in New Zealand and further planned trials in the United States and Australia. We anticipate globalization in partnership with a large multinational. Exit options are most likely to come from a trade sale or consolidation of shares by a significant new private investor.

The Problem

Medication errors are among the most common medical errors, harming millions of people globally every year. In New Zealand hospitals medication error causes an estimated 150 patient deaths¹ and potentially contributes to up to 2,500 in total², costing an estimated NZ $158–$411 million per annum³.

In US Hospitals, medication error injures 400,000- 700,000⁴ people and causes an estimated 7,000 deaths at a cost of US$3.5B-$5.6B per annum.

Intravenous medication errors account for over half of this total and are twice as likely to cause harm than from drugs administered via other routes⁵. Examples include a 33 year old mother in Sydney in 2010, left paralysed from the waist down⁶ when injected epidurally with a cleaning agent. In 2012 a Wairarapa patient was unintentionally administered two doses of adrenaline causing heart arrhythmia requiring defibrillation.

The Solution

Veriphi Ltd is a New Zealand company that has developed a highly innovative laser based analyser to verify intravenous (IV) drugs to prevent medication error in hospitals.

The Veriphi medication safety solution, developed over the past 7 years, will be arguably the simplest and safest way to prevent such tragedies occurring.

The system works by placing Veriphi’s consumable containing the drug in the beam path of the analyser. The consumable has optical windows that allow the laser beam passage through the drug and consumable walls to a detector. The optical information received by the detector is compared against a library of known signatures for speci c drugs. The Veriphi system then alerts the clinician if the drug presented is not the one intended to be administered.

The Benefit

To be able to simply and quickly verify the correct identity and concentration of IV drugs in non destructive testing is widely acknowledged in New Zealand and abroad as the holy grail of IV medication safety. As such, a solution that does this would be a “game changer”. This is particularly the case since recent overhaul of pharmacovigilance legislation in the EU and USA. The objective of the changes was to tighten up on drug traceability and verification as part of Good Manufacturing Practice. The US changes were sparked by a major tragedy due to non compliant preparation of sterile drugs in a single Boston pharmacy that caused the death of over 60 people across the United States in 2012 and 2013.

[1] Extrapolated from David et al study 2001.
[2] Extrapolated from Seddon et al IHI Trigger Tool Study 2013.
[3] Briant, Ali, Lay-Yee, Davis, New Zealand Med J 2004; Brown, McArthur, Newby et al, J Health Serv Res Policy 2002; Kunac, Kennedy, Austin et al 2009; Extrapolation Harvard Medical Practice Studyy, N Eng J Med 1991.
[4] Institute of Medicine 2000, 2006. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Report, 2002,2008.
[5] American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy 2008.
[6] http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2011/06/29/epidural-tragedy-mum-speaks-out.

Technology Status

Veriphi has two working proof of concept bench top prototypes, involved in ongoing tests at its facilities. The technology achieved 100 % success recently across 40 blind trials of 10 drugs in 4 containers with data measured across three temperatures. The ability to repeatedly and accurately verify drugs using data collected from multiple drugs in multiple containers across temperatures is a major milestone.

Veriphi’s next step is to build a commercial prototype incorporating further refinements for hospital validation.

IP Status

Veriphi’s intellectual property is protected by seven patent families including two approved US patents with a third US approval likely in the next 12 months. A seventh patent application is imminent.

Resources and Partners

Veriphi’s technical team has developed its novel solution working closely with industry stakeholders - notably, Auckland District Health Board, Callaghan Innovation and a range of technology contractors.

As the company moves into its commercialisation phase it has appointed an impressive clinical advisory team of some of New Zealand’s leading clinicians. We have also established relationships with other hospitals in New Zealand as well as Alfred Hospital/ Monash University, Victoria, Australia and Stony Brook University in Long Island NY, USA, for hospital trials following the successful completion of trials at the Auckland City Hospital.

Commercialisation

Veriphi’s revenue will come from the sale of analysers and consumables. The business model is to expand the population of analysers in hospitals to maximize recurring revenue from consumable sales. The consumable initially will be an IV connector with optical windows that allow the transmission of laser light at the required wavelengths. The connector will attach to other IV consumables such as syringes, IV bags and IV lines.

As the cost and size of the hardware is reduced the technology will become more widely dispersed beyond pharmacies and medication rooms to bedside use.

Fundraising

We are raising between $400,000 - $2 million for between 4.75 – 19.95% of Veriphi Limited.

This funding will be used to:

• Translate current prototype design into a commercial format for trials at Auckland City Hospital.
• Conduct validation trials at Auckland City Hospital.
• Achieve first revenues.
• Secure a deal with a global partner.