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Cochlear Limited

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Cochlear Limited
Company typePublic
ASX: COH
IndustryBiotechnology
Founded1981
HeadquartersSydney, Australia
Key people
Dig Howitt (CEO)
Rick Holliday-Smith (Chairman)
ProductsCochlear implants
Bone-anchored hearing aids
Cochlear wireless accessories
Bone anchored prosthetics
RevenueIncrease A$1240 million (2017) [1]
Increase A$224 million (2017) [1]
Number of employees
2,800 in 20 countries (2015)[1]
Websitewww.cochlear.com

Cochlear (ASX: COH) is a medical device company that designs, manufactures and supplies the Nucleus cochlear implant, the Hybrid electro-acoustic implant and the Baha bone conduction implant.[2]

Based in Sydney, Cochlear was formed in 1981 with finance from the Australian government to commercialise the implants pioneered by Dr Graeme Clark.[3][4] Today, the company holds over two-thirds of the worldwide hearing implant market,[5][6] with more than 250,000 people receiving one of Cochlear's implants since 1982.[2]

Cochlear was named Australia's most innovative company in 2002 and 2003,[7] and one of the world's most innovative companies by Forbes in 2011.[8]

Products

Cochlear produces three implants for different medical situations.

Nucleus is a system combining an electrical simulation device that is surgically implanted behind a patient's ear, a processor that captures sounds, and an electrode array that relays the sounds to the brain.[2][9] It is a direct descendant of the original cochlear implants, also known as Nucleus, developed by Dr Graeme Clark in Melbourne during the 1970s.[3] Nucleus was the first cochlear implant to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.[10] The system is upgradable, for example by installing a new sound processor, without surgery.[2] Cochlear's latest processor, Nucleus 6, was launched in 2013 after six years of development.[11] It replaced the Nucleus 5 system. In 2011, the Nucleus 5 CI500 series internal implant was recalled[12] with up to a 24% failure rate.[13] In 2013, the Nucleus implant recorded 99% reliability over the last 8 years, more than any similar product.[14]

Hybrid is an electro-acoustic system combining a cochlear implant with an acoustic hearing aid, suitable for patients who have residual hearing at low frequencies.[15] The implant of the Hybrid system is a smaller variant of Nucleus, with an electrode that relays only high frequency sounds,[15] while the acoustic component amplifies low frequency sounds and transmits them to the brain through the ordinary nerve pathway.[2] Hybrid was launched in 2008 and won Australian Engineering Excellence and International Design Awards in 2009.[15]

Baha (derived from bone anchored hearing aid) is a bone conduction system involving a small titanium implant that is ossointegrated with the bone behind a patient's ear.[2] A sound processor captures sounds, which is passed to the implant and directly transferred to the inner ear through the skull.[2][16] Baha was originally produced by Swedish biotechnology group Entific Medical Systems before that company was acquired by Cochlear in 2005.[17]

Corporate Affairs

Cochlear manufactures principally in Sweden and Australia, including at a purpose-built facility at Macquarie University in Sydney.[18][19] The company's products are supplied to over 100 countries internationally, with 43% sales revenue ($403 million) derived from the Americas, 40% ($377.6 million) from Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 17% ($161.3 million) from the Asia-Pacific region as of 2015.[2] Cochlear spent $128 million on research and development in FY15.[2]

In 2011, reports arose of Nucleus model CI500 implants shutting down, although less than 1% of devices were affected and the failures posed no health risks.[20][21] Cochlear funded a complete recall of the model, with an older version of the Nucleus implant being available as a replacement.[20][21] The company spent $101.3 million on the recall.[22]

References

  1. ^ a b c "2017 Cochlear Limited Annual Report" (PDF).
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Annual report 2015" (PDF). Cochlear. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  3. ^ a b "History: Who developed the cochlear implant and why?". Powerhouse Museum. Archived from the original on 18 October 2012. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  4. ^ "History". Cochlear. Archived from the original on 17 August 2013. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  5. ^ "Australia's Cochlear plans to return implant to market". Reuters. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  6. ^ "Questions mount over Cochlear's top status". 9 News. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  7. ^ "Cochlear named most innovative company". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  8. ^ "Most innovative growth companies". Forbes. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  9. ^ "The cochlear implant". Powerhouse Museum. Archived from the original on 11 May 2015. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  10. ^ "Cochlear implants technical report". American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  11. ^ "Hearing company Cochlear stakes growth on new range". Herald Sun. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  12. ^ "Cochlear Recalls Line of Ear Implants". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  13. ^ "Nucleus N5 CI500 series implant recall: Hard failure rate at a major cochlear implantation center". The Laryngoscope. Wiley. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  14. ^ "Cochlear Nucleus Reliability Report 2013". Cochlear. Archived from the original on 18 June 2013. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  15. ^ a b c "Cochlear Hybrid hearing system 2008". Powerhouse Museum. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  16. ^ "Baha implant". University of Maryland Medical Center. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  17. ^ "Cochlear buys into Sweden". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  18. ^ "New technologies push growth of Cochlear". BioSpectrum Asia. Archived from the original on 6 July 2012. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  19. ^ "Cochlear 'well placed for growth trend'". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  20. ^ a b "Hearing aid company's shares drop sharply as Cochlear recalls product". News Limited. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  21. ^ a b "Cochlear shares plummet on product recall". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  22. ^ "Cochlear reports $77.7m H1 profit as it recovers from recall". The Australian. Retrieved 22 June 2013.

See also

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