PROSTHETIC limb specialist Touch Bionics said it expected to continue growing sales in 2016 after posting an 11 per cent rise in revenues to £15 million for last year.
“We are pleased with our 2015 performance and are proud that there have now been more than 5,000 i-limb wearers fitted world-wide”, said Ian Stevens, chief executive of the Livingston-based company. Touch employs 120 staff across offices in Edinburgh, Boston, New York, Columbus Ohio and Heidelberg, Germany.
Its products include an electronic prosthetic hand and prosthetic fingers, as well as non-moving silicone prostheses that closely match the natural appearance of the wearer. The company was the first to develop an electrically powered prosthetic hand with five independently powered fingers and continues to be a pioneer in upper limb prosthetics.
“The i-limb allows wearers to restore the ability to perform a wide range of essential everyday living activities – such as using cutlery, tying shoelaces and buttoning clothes – which may have been lost after an accident or illness, or just not present due to a congenital limb deficiency,” Mr Stevens explained.
“The hand is controlled by interpreting tiny electrical signals picked up by electrodes attached to muscles, typically on the remaining forearm. A micro-processor in the hand converts the signals to move into particular grips and to open and close the hand at varying speeds and strengths.”
In 2015, Touch Bionics introduced the i-limb quantum and i-digits quantum hands, both of which can be controlled using simple gestures and are stronger and faster than their predecessors.
“We anticipate continued growth from sales of these electronic prosthetic hands and partial hands in 2016,” Mr Stevens continued.
The company said it also expected to make a pre-tax profit for the 12 months to end December 2015. Growth is being driven by strong results from its European markets, most notably in Germany, and also in France, where the i-limb is now officially approved and funded by the French governmental health authorities.
“The i-limb is funded by health authorities in all our European markets and in the USA,” a spokesperson for the company explained. “It is not generally approved by the NHS in England and Wales or in Scotland, although occasionally special funding requests are successful.”
To buy an i-limb, wearers typically apply through their clinician to the health authority or insurance company which funds their healthcare. Touch then sells to the clinicians who fit the limbs.
“We have historically grown our business by entering new markets and expanding our product range and we intend to continue to do so,” the company said.
A spin-out from the UK’s National Health Service, Touch Bionics was founded by inventor David Gow, a Dumfries-born mechanical engineer who started researching upper limb prostheses at the University of Edinburgh in the 1980s. The company is funded and supported by business angel syndicate Archangel Investors, who have been investors since the company’s formation in 2003, and Scottish Enterprise.
The company declined to comment on whether it planned further fundraisings or an initial public offering. In 2014 Touch Bionics was reported to have appointed stockbroker Oriel Securities to advise on a float that could have valued it at up to £50m.
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