Unilife Corp. (NASDAQ: UNIS) is an emerging medical device manufacturer with business segments that include pre-filled syringes for pharmaceutical companies to deliver injectable medications, sharps safety devices for healthcare facilities, and contract manufacturing of medical devices.
More than two billion prefilled syringes are currently used each year on a global basis and pharmaceutical companies are making the switch to products such as Unilife's safety syringe which are compliant with needle-stick prevention laws (e.g. Federal Needlestick Prevention Act, 2000).
Key differentiating features of Unilife's fully-integrated (within the barrel of the syringe) safety syringes include the following:
1.) a passive needle retraction system that is activated inside the body
2.) healthcare providers / shot administrators control the speed of needle retraction
3.) auto-disabling prevents re-use or tampering with used syringes.
The market opportunity for prefilled syringes includes 50 drugs (primary anti-coagulant / hematology medications, vaccines, and other biological agents) that are delivered by injection, including an estimated 3 billion prefilled syringes in use by 2012.
Unilife has a distinct advantage with a disruptive technology since there are currently no prefilled syringes to deliver medications with fully-integrated safety features so pharmaceutical companies must add these features - which adds to production / shipping costs and increases the overall packaging size by up to 60%, resulting in both waste disposal and marketing issues.
