Edward Bullard founded Dexela in 2005 with the aim of developing and commercialising a 3D imaging technology called breast tomosynthesis for early detection of breast cancer. The company was acquired by global corporation PerkinElmer in June 2011. Following the acquisition, Edward transitioned from CEO of Dexela to general manager of the CMOS X-ray business within PerkinElmer and now plans to expand the reach of the technology to a number of other sectors and applications. Here, he talks about the origins of the business, and recalls the challenges of persevering through a recession that left many other companies in the industry bruised, battered and unable to continue trading.
Dexela was founded to develop and commercialise 3D digital mammography - 3D imaging for the early detection of breast cancer. The product has been commercialised through a partnership with an Italian manufacturer and was launched this year.
Back in 2008 I decided to change the company strategy somewhat. After our second round of financing, which NESTA participated in, we developed a new type of X-ray detector to be used in mammography, but which can also be applied to applications such as real-time surgical X-ray and 3D imaging for dental surgery. This allowed us to address a much broader range of global markets. We currently supply customers in the US, Europe, Asia and South America.
We have what's called an OEM sales model. We sell a high-value component, and sometimes software alongside that, to companies that manufacture the systems used in hospitals or industrial settings. Our customers know their market very well but don't always have the resources or desire to develop this component themselves. We supply the detector and it is then integrated by our customers into an imaging system that's targeted to a very specific market. It could be a mobile X-ray system used in surgery, a mammography system for breast cancer detection or cabinet systems used in electronics factories.
I'd previously run a software company which I still have, but became involved in the 3D mammography project through a family connection in Massachusetts. We then got into the X-ray detector sector when we perceived an unmet need for a fast, low noise X-ray detector for 3D mammography. We were unimpressed with the existing products and were unhappy with the choices of technology being used, so we decided to do it ourselves in a different way, with different technology. As we came up with a plan to develop a new detector for conventional 2D and the new 3D mammography method we realised that we could use the same technology platform and investment to supply other markets, such as dental CT, surgical X-ray and electronics inspection, markets which are now more important for us than mammography.
We've taken established technologies, brought them together and used them in medical X-ray in a way that wasn't being done before. The basic technology we're using is the same as that used in modern digital still cameras, but there are certain tricks to using it in the medical market and achieving the price points that the OEMs require. We've developed unique production processes and some clever software.
Mainly because this is where I live, but there are certainly advantages to being an English speaking company over companies that are based in say Italy or France. The time zone is also quite convenient here. We're able to talk to both Asia and the US East Coast fairly easily within our working day.
We were undercapitalised for quite a while so there was a huge emphasis on managing cash, which is a significant distraction for a rapidly growing company and also prevented us from making some relatively small investments in R&D and tooling that would have brought substantial improvements in profitability and growth. Other than some fairly common early supply chain issues, I'd say that was our biggest challenge.
It was the launch of the X-ray detector product family at a major trade show in Chicago at the end of 2009. You have a plan and assume people will like the product, but because we couldn't disclose too much before launching and we were essentially an unknown company when we came onto the market we were uncertain how we would be received. But as soon as we launched it was clear it would work: lots of people gathered round our booth, we organised a lot of meetings with potential buyers and our competitors noticed the interest being taken in us.
It was even more encouraging because it was during a very difficult time in the economic cycle. Other companies' sales were down 40% or more that year. High unemployment in the US has meant that many people there have lost their health insurance. That has reduced volumes of surgical procedures which, in turn, has had an impact on capital spending by hospitals and imaging centres. Our components go into capital equipment so the economic downturn had huge knock-on effects on companies in this sector.
We're able to trade without a significant brand. We are now part of PerkinElmer, a much larger and well respected group and that makes things easier from a sales point of view as many people are more confident about buying from a bigger company.
Our chairman Peter Denyer, who died last year, was a great guy. He said that when you're running a small business there are endless crises and it always looks like the end of world. But if you just plough on, and remain calm, things will resolve themselves in due course.
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