From a Proactive Investors June 6 article
A huge potential opportunity.. Dr George Adams, the chief executive at VentriPoint, says the MD Anderson Cancer Center order represents a huge opportunity. "Since all chemotherapy agents hurt the heart, the American Heart Association (AHA) has put out a statement saying cancer patients should ask to have their heart examined before, during and after therapy as they are more likely to die from heart problems than cancer after they have the therapy," he noted. He reckons the hospital's network would need 750 VMS+ devices to treat their patients according to the AHA (American Heart Association) guidelines (3 three scans per patient) at "full utilisation". There are 1,500 cancer centers in the USA, which deal with 23mln patients, who come back twice a year to check to see if the cancer has regrown and the AHA is saying they really should be more worried about heart conditions then cancer, suggests Adams. He says that to follow AHA guidelines in the USA with the normal use rates would require 20,000 VMS+ machines. At US$75,000 each this would be US$1.5bn of sales, he says, and that is just for the USA. The European market is 1.5 times' the USA. In March this year, the firm said it would advance the AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities of the system, via a government grant. VentriPoint will partner with Ryerson University on a project to further advance the Al already imbedded in the VMS+ products as it is taking part in a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Engage grant. The same month, it established an business advisory committee (BAC) and named Samuel Schwartz as its inaugural chairman. Significantly, in January, its VMSplus device received a European CE mark less than a month after the firm made the application. It means it can now be sold to aid in heart treatment throughout the European Union and the medtech group said it aims to meet with distributors with a focus on Germany, the UK and France. According to the European Heart Network, cardiovascular disease (CVD) causes 3.9mln deaths in Europe annually and accounts for 45% of all deaths in Europe, so the opportunity is vast here. Expansion plans Last November, the group revealed it was putting expansion plans in the Middle East in place. It struck a partnership with the SEED Group, which is a group of firms owned The Private Office of Sheikh Saeed Bin Ahmed Al Maktoum of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. "The SEED Group has already introduced us to leading cardiologists and hospitals in the region, who have expressed their interest in acquiring the VMS-PLUS and demonstrating its application within the healthcare environment," Adams had said. "We see Dubai as an excellent starting place for our expansion plans into the Middle East." In September, the firm said that interest in VentriPoint products is strong from Iran, Singapore, Thailand, UAE and Saudi Arabia, and that regional distributors were verifying the local pathway to regulatory approval
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