About King Systems
King Systems is a leading US manufacturer of medical devices used by anaesthetists and emergency crews to establish and maintain patient airways in both hospital and pre-hospital settings. King Systems has a premium brand in the US and is well known for its quality products and superior service. King Systems is a US market leader in anaesthesia circuits and masks and has growing franchises in supraglottic airways and disposable visualisation devices.
King serves the US market with a high quality national sales force and the international markets with a growing network of distributors.
King Systems is based near Indianapolis, Indiana, where it manufactures over 10 million devices every year. Nearly 50,000 King products are used every day.
The new CEO of King Systems has just announced a three year programme of automation of manufacturing that will transform the business capability and increase margins.
Market Overview
The global market for disposable medical devices for anaesthetists is around $500m, around half of which is in the US. The market is fundamentally driven by the number of surgical procedures carried out using a general anaesthetic, which has historically been growing steadily but has taken a brief setback in the 2008/09 economic downturn impacting elective procedures.
Stronger growth rates are forecast in certain device spaces, in which King Systems intends to be well represented. For example supraglottic airway devices are expected to take an increasing share of the market from endotracheal tubes as surgeons increasingly prefer not to insert an airway through the vocal cords (larynx) in shorter procedures. Visualisation of the larynx is also an increasingly important option which is becoming a standard of care as opposed to something only used when intubating "difficult airways".
Key Products
King has a broad range of products for anaesthetists to use
Circuits are the flexible tubes which link the patient to the gas/air anaesthesia machine (one for inhalation and one for exhalation). King has a range of different circuit technologies but the patented Universal Flex2 has been growing share rapidly over the past four years due to its superior performance and ergonomic design and King is now one of the leaders in this segment.
Masks are placed over the patient’s nose and mouth at the beginning of operations and sometimes throughout a procedure. Because the patient is conscious when the mask is applied, the quality and comfort of it is important. King’s "Big Blue" mask is the industry standard in the US and King additionally has a range of scented and coloured masks for pediatric use to help reduce patient anxiety and stress.
Supraglottic airway devices are a rapid growth market because they can safely provide an airway for a patient without penetrating the larynx. The standard of care has been the LMA or Laryngeal Airway Device (LAD), which King Systems launched its own version of in 2008. King Systems additionally manufactures the next generation device, called a Laryngeal Tube Device (LTD), which offers a number of advantages over the LAD/LMA and which is expected to grow rapidly.
Visualisation is an important new theme in the market. Traditionally anaesthetists use a laryngeal blade –a metal guide – to depress the tongue and aid visualisation of the placement of the airway tube. This process is cheap and generally effective but does not always offer a clear view of the patient’s airway. New visualisation devices, such as King Systems’ Airtraq, have shown good growth in the market, but their cost means that they are generally used only when an airway is proving difficult to visualise (around 5-10% of cases).
King Systems supplies a broad range of other components to anaesthetists, such as Heat and Moisture Exchange Filters (HMEFs) and breathing bags.