Monday, November 16, 2015
French medical technology company Mauna Kea could sign a partnership by the end of the year that would allow it to accelerate the commercial development of a small microscope approved by U.S. regulators for use in surgical procedures to diagnose cancer, its chief executive told Reuters.
Cellvizio provides images of cells and helps doctors diagnose cancers of the stomach, oesophagus and bile ducts. Mauna Kea's shares jumped almost 60 percent in a single day after it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
"We can now address another market, minimally invasive surgery, which has a number of players offering a range of potential uses for our technology", Sacha Loiseau, founder and chief executive of the company, said.
According to Mauna Kea, the use of Cellvizio in surgery would give it access to a market worth between 400 million and 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) a year.
Loiseau lists U.S. firms Stryker, Medtronic, Intuitive Surgical, Japan's Olympus, Germany's Storz and Canada's Novadaq as surgical market players he would be "potentially interested" in working with.
"We think we could integrate our Cellvizio technology into their platforms. We are quite confident that we will announce a deal by the end of the year", he added.
Loiseau said it was "quite possible" the company would turn to financial markets to raise funds when it had presented its road map to investors, adding this "could be in 2016."
reuters.com
