PECO Medical drops out

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. - PECO Medical is exiting the urology market, according to a letter to its customers.

“After an extensive review of the market and our prospects for future success, we made the difficult decision to exist the urology business effective June 1, 2019,” wrote Greg Bosco, president of Genairex and Peco Medical, in the letter. “We plan to continue to ship urological products and support our customers through the end of May.”

Genairex, better known as Securi-T, bought Peco Medical in 2016.

Genairex/Peco Medical began reviewing both their urology and ostomy businesses last year. On the ostomy side, the company entered a “new relationship” with Hollister Inc., which was already the contract manufacturer for the Securi-T line of ostomy pouches, whereby Hollister provided distribution and operational support for the products, the letter states.

“This change allowed us to widen our service area, while lowering our response times to our customers and their patients,” Bosco wrote.

On the urology side, Genairex/Peco Medical's decision was to drop out of the market. Hollister already manufactures continence products.

The decision has left some distributors and providers scrambling to find replacements, especially for lower-cost options, which have gained in popularity under a general environment of reimbursement cuts.

“It does leave a hole for a cheaper option,” said Eugene Keane, director of category for distributor Preferred Medical, an NDC Company.

Other manufacturers in the urology market, like Cure Medical, are standing by to see how they can help providers and distributors transition to other products.

“A significant number of HME providers are contacting us looking for quality made, reasonably priced replacement for these items,” said Lisa Wells, vice president of marketing at Cure Medical. “We're happy to assist our sales partners in making the transition as smooth as possible for their customers who depend on intermittent catheters.”

That Hollister has ties to Peco Medical and Securi-T—something many in the industry suspected but didn't know officially—doesn't faze Keane.

“It doesn't matter where you get the product if it's appropriate and it maximizes reimbursement,” he said.

Attempts to reach Genairex/Peco by press time were unsuccessful. Hollister declined to comment for this story.