EOFlow said it has agreed to export 48.8 billion won ($ million) worth of EOPatch, its wearable insulin pump, to six Middle Eastern countries through Gulf Drug, an United Arab Emirates (UAE) medical distribution company.
The six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members are UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain.
Gulf Drug will also hold exclusive sales rights for the device in the five Middle Eastern countries for the next five years. According to EOFlow, Gulf Drug is one of the leading pharmaceutical and medical device distribution companies in the Middle East. Founded in 1969, it has a strong Middle East regional network and plans to utilize it when supplying EOPatch.
As a company with the largest drug and medical device distribution network in the GCC region and expertise in marketing, it plans to carry out various promotions to secure awareness of EOPatch in the future, the Korean company added.
EOFlow also stressed that in the case of several Middle Eastern countries, such as the UAE, EOPatch could quickly receive approval by leveraging the European CE (Conformite Europeenne) mark.
“We are happy to announce the news of a new contract in the Middle East,” EOFlow CEO Kim Jae-jin said. “The Middle East has a large economy, many diabetic people, and a high interest in healthcare, but there is no official patch pump supply yet, so there is a lot of unmet demand.”
Although the size of the diabetes market, such as China, Indonesia, and the Middle East, is large, Eoflow is moving quickly to pioneer new markets as competitors have not yet entered such markets, Kim added.
The increase in the diabetic population is a global phenomenon. The suffering and needs of diabetic people are great even in developing countries, where competitors do not yet place a significant focus due to reasons such as income level or insufficient insurance system.
“EOFlow will continuously strive to improve the quality of life for as many people as possible in such areas through our products,” Kim said. “We are also accelerating business diversification by developing wearable pharmaceuticals and artificial kidneys and next-generation products such as the artificial pancreas.”