Company history/background
Worldwide, the incidence of cancer is growing, as life expectancy increases. Current imaging tools have their limitations as they are not suitable to provide the necessary information. In particular, information on the tissue structure on mm scale at high resolution is missing to make cancer treatment radically more accurate, faster and personalized. Specially for bladder cancer (BC) this is the case, but also for colon cancer, lung cancer and cancer in the prostate. BC is one of the most costly cancer types worldwide.
The enterprise has an excellent team with demonstrated experienceto make this OCT catheter a success. The CEO has successfully founded and sold a tech start-up in another major industry. The members of the leadership team are biomedical engineers with expertise in imaging technologies and medical devices. The organization has in-house software development and an experienced regulatory expert. The team is promoted by leading scientists and supported by a dozen urologists throughout Europe, as part of an early adopter program. Funding up to now is mainly provided by business angels with relevant industry expertise.
Company activities
Cancer treatment technology that will drastically improve cancer treatment and care. With the firms forward looking OCT catheter the urologist will be able to visualise the anatomical bladder wall structure in real time during the standard cystoscopy examination, with an incredible resolution of only a few micrometers and allowing the detection of very early tumors. This will personalize treatment options, increase the quality of the patients lives and reduce health care costs.
The urologists who reviewed the technology see this as a likely game changer in the treatment of BC patients, with the potential to become the gold standard. Experts from other clinical areas also express great interest in this new development.
- Market
Annually >500.000 people are diagnosed with BC. In up to 80% recurrences will occur, resulting in lifelong follow ups. By using image guided therapy the amount of unneeded bladder removals can be significantly decreased (currently 20%) and the number of unnecessary follow-up surgeries can be reduced (currently up to 50%). In the BC market, we expect to sell 50.000 catheters per year in 5 years after the first sale, representing a turn over of ~€30M
Unique selling points
- The firms imaging platform makes one stop diagnosis and treatment possible. Combined with AI, a powerful diagnosis tool is created, which can distinguish between different benign and malign tissue types. Finally, photonics based localization enables robotic surgery.
- It’s a minimally invasive imaging catheter that allows doctors to see cancerous tissue otherwise hidden within the organ walls.With this device doctors will be able to discover bladder, colon, lung and prostate cancer already at the 1st consult, in real time.
- The high resolution tissue structure image provided with this solution supports the urologist in a more accurate, faster and personalized treatment.