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The Annual Meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) took place in Helsinki, Finland, on 3-6th July which gathered thousands of industry professionals to discover new scientific information, products and technologies.

Teams from CooperSurgical companies ORIGIO, Research Instruments (RI), K-Systems and The Pipette Company (TPC) attended, manning their very first joint stand, which included services offered by their sister genetics companies, Genesis Genetics, Recombine and Reprogenetics.

For the very first time, ART professionals were able to find all they needed in one place from a hysteroscopy device, media, ART equipment and consumables to genetic diagnostic systems.

“As a much bigger company we will be able to serve our customers directly, as a partner, creating unique, new products and services that fit specifically to them across the entire ART process. This is something we have not been able to do as individual companies,” said David Hansen, Managing Director of ORIGIO.

 “I was stunned because I thought the brands were all different companies. You are a one-stop shop now which is quite amazing!” Prince Onysu Mensah, Tema Women’s Hospital, Uganda

Product Launches


Endosee® Office Hysteroscopy

0ri_5289-240x300The Endosee Office Hysteroscopy system, a portable handheld, cordless system for diagnostic hysteroscopy attracted much interest to the joint stand during the entire show.

Esben Bruun Mortensen, Director of Business Development at ORIGIO said, “On the first day we got through more than 700 Endosee brochures, which was fantastic.

On the stand we were able to show the handset, how simple it is to use, and demonstrate the exceptional picture quality of the camera which visitors found most impressive.

Doctors saw how they can do something completely different, without the need for theatre space, which is something they have been requesting for many years.”

ORIGIO VitriFit Open Carrier System

ORIGIO’s new VitriFit Open Carrier system launch enabled delegates to see the product and find out more through Tuesday’s talk entitled, The new VitriFit™ open system vitrification carrier, optimizing storage efficiency.vitrifit-for-jakki-300x225

Growth in the cryo segment had led the company’s product development team to consider storage efficiency as a key feature that will benefit clinics.

“It was a very promising launch with lots of attention from a wide range of delegates,” said Thomas Flarup S∅rensen, Senior Product Manager at ORIGIO.  “We were particularly pleased that customers were interested in its ease of use, curved loading area and storage efficiency.

Designed using hexagon shapes, people saw how tightly and safely the carriers were stacked inside.”

Access the presentation here

K-Systems G210 Invicell Plus Incubator

K-Systems also celebrated their 30 years in business by launching the new G210 Invicell Plus Incubator which offers external monitoring for clinics.

“The launch enabled us to show our continued commitment to building the most secure and reliable systems on the market,” said K-Systems’ Eva Grauballe.

“We are addressing the increase of professionalism within labs, as clinics are requiring more sophisticated and effective solutions for quality control, by adapting our products to suit the growing need for external independent monitoring.

The G210 Plus addresses this trend by providing a higher level of external quality control, something none of our competitors currently provide“.

Speaker Programme


Live talks from key opinion leaders, who are experts within their respective fields of IVF, gave delegates the opportunity to discover new insights about biopsies and analysis, sperm selection and electronic witnessing.

Dr Antonio Capalbo, who is responsible for the PGD/PGS program
antonio-capalbo-300x238at GENERA Reproductive Medicine Centers in Rome, kicked off the series with his talk; Implementing PGD/PGS in IVF clinics: considerations for the best laboratory approach and management.

Speaking to a packed audience, he explained how implementing such techniques was a multidisciplinary and demanding task that required improvements in all areas of IVF activity, and that it was of extreme importance to establish connections with a genetics lab experienced with PGD/PGS.

Access the presentation here

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Dr Albert Obradors, Laboratory Director at Clínica Eugin in Barcelona, gave an account of how the RI Witness™ security and ART management system worked as an additional security measure at his IVF clinics, emphasizing mistakes can be made, and that double human witnessing is not enough.

He ended his talk, saying he believed all clinics will turn to electronic witnessing systems in the future.

RI’s Director of Product Development, Rob Thompson, rounded off the session with a talk about RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) safety, stating over 500,000 IVF cycles had been completed using the RI Witness system without any detrimental effects on blastocyst development, ongoing pregnancy or live birth rates recorded.

Access the presentation here

Dr Denny Sakkas, who is Scientific Director at Boston IVF in the USA followed with his talk; Male Factor Infertility in ART:  Selecting the best sperm?  
denny-sakkas-shot-300x200A key area driving developments in IVF is andrology so it was a special pleasure to have Dr Denny Sakkas speaking at the booth.

He also attracted a great crowd, talking about how to improve the sperm selection process from gradient separation and morphological characteristics to Hyaluronan Binding and the use of IMSI (Intracytoplasmic Morphological Sperm Injection) and ICSI (Intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection).

Access the presentation here

The Future of IVF


“The movement in molecular biology and genetics is unfathomable”, said Dr Sakkas, when asked his thoughts about the sector’s future. “We wouldn’t have guessed five years ago some of the technologies we’d have available to us in the labs now.

Fields such as cancer, other molecular biology techniques and new ones being developed, will continue to influence our work so our ability to do genetic testing, transcriptomic testing and hopefully protein and metabolic testing will be the way technologies help us in advancing IVF.”

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“Reprogenetics, Recombine and Genesis Genetics are going to help us move forward with where we put our product development,” added Kiri Bielby, ORIGIO’s Head of Medical Marketing.

“I think we’re in a really good position at the moment to take some of the products we have and adapt them towards the way the industry is adapting, such as media for genetic testing.”

The Future of CooperSurgical Companies


“We believe we have key products for driving innovation, such as advanced media products, the RI Witness system and diagnostic solutions through PGD and PGS, which is a key focus area moving forward,” Marie-Louise Haxthausen, ORIGIO’s Global Marketing Vice President said. “We also want to assist our customers with staff training to help them achieve the best possible results”.

To find out about other events we are attending in 2016, follow any of our social media channels, or check out our events page for more information.