Creo Medical Group plc

("Creo" the "Company" or the "Group")

Trading update and notice of results

Solid start to 2022, with revenues in line with expectations

Creo Medical Group plc (AIM: CREO), a medical device company focused on the emerging field of surgical endoscopy, announces a trading update for the first quarter of 2022 and confirms that it expects to publish its final results for the year ended 31 December 2021 in early May 2022. 

Creo continued to build momentum during 2021 and, as announced in the Company's 3 February 2022 trading update, overall revenue for the year ended 31 December 2021 is expected to be just over £25m - in line with the upgraded market expectations for FY2021. This momentum has continued in 2022 YTD with Creo seeing a solid start to the year. Revenues for Q1 2022 are strong, supported by the commercial groundwork put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, the reopening of markets post COVID-19 and the resultant backlog of demand for elective procedures, increased training and adoption of Creo's Speedboat Inject device.

Commercial activity from Creo's core products continues to grow, with notable contributions from the US, EMEA and Asia-Pacific ("APAC") markets where case volumes have increased quarter-on-quarter.

Positively, March 2022 was the highest month on record for cases performed in the US, as more physicians adopt Speedboat Submucosal Dissection ("SSD") for resections in the colon and functional disorders in the oesophagus and stomach. Best in class training and mentoring programmes are helping leading academic and community hospitals deliver minimally invasive advanced endoscopic surgical procedures.

The acquisition of Albyn Medical, bringing direct sales representation and complementary products to the Group, has led to significant growth of users and training sites in UK, Spain, France, and Belgium. Leading physician mentors recently launched a new 'pioneer' training programme for large groups of interventional endoscopists and surgeons. These forums will be the standard for onboarding new physicians and institutions.

Creo has now officially opened its regional hub in Singapore, with the facility providing a multi-functional centre for the commercial roll-out of Creo's products across the APAC region, providing a direct sales and marketing presence across APAC and will be central to the management of Creo's distribution partners in the APAC region. 

Whilst many of the APAC countries are emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic slower than western economies, the Creo APAC team have utilised their extensive experience to build strong relationships with distribution partners in the region and to commence the initial steps required to commercialise products as and when their respective markets allow.  

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Creo has increased the number of distribution partners engaged in the APAC region, all of which will be directly managed through the regional hub. Partners are selected to ensure that they have the necessary experience to not only sell Creo's core technology in their respective markets but to also work alongside Creo's clinical education team to ensure that Creo's training led strategy is replicated.

Craig Gulliford, Chief Executive Officer of Creo, commented: "I have been delighted with the start to the year that the Creo team has made, as we build on the momentum that we established in 2021. We have seen increased training and adoption of clinicians using Speedboat Inject, with March 2022 being our record month for US cases performed using the device.

"The new 'pioneer' training programme demonstrates our commitment to continually improving our training standards to ensure that clinicians are properly educated on the safe use of our products, and become long-term users of our technology. Although our APAC regional hub has only just recently opened, the local Creo team has already made strong progress in building relationships with distribution partners, and we expect the hub to be a strong driver for our international expansion going forward as restrictions are lifted around the region."

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About Creo Medical 

Creo Medical is a medical device company focused on the development and commercialisation of minimally invasive electrosurgical devices, bringing advanced energy to endoscopy.

The Company's vision is to improve patient outcomes through the development and commercialisation of a suite of electrosurgical medical devices, each enabled by CROMA, powered by Kamaptive. The Group has developed the CROMA powered by Kamaptive full-spectrum adaptive technology to optimise surgical capability and patient outcomes. Kamaptive is a seamless, intuitive integration of multi-modal energy sources, optimised to dynamically adapt to patient tissue during procedures such as resection, dissection, coagulation and ablation of tissue. Kamaptive technology provides clinicians with increased flexibility, precision and controlled surgical solutions.  CROMA currently delivers bipolar radiofrequency ("RF") energy for precise localised cutting and focused high frequency microwave ("MW") energy for controlled coagulation and ablation via a single accessory port. This technology, combined with the Group's range of patented electrosurgical devices, is designed to provide clinicians with flexible, accurate and controlled clinical solutions. The Directors believe the Company's technology can impact the landscape of surgery and endoscopy by providing a safer, less-invasive and more cost-efficient option for procedures.

For more information, please refer to the website www.creomedical.com