A company making a proton beam therapy system for cancer treatment says its system is smaller, lighter, more energy efficient and less than half the cost of existing technology.
Name of Company: ProNova Solutions
Industry: Medical devices
City, State: Knoxville, Tennessee
Solution/Product: ProNova is focused on making a device for proton beam therapy, a type of cancer treatment that uses a targeted beam of protons to irradiate diseased tissue, more accessible to cancer patients and doctors. Its first product is ProNova SC360, a proton therapy solution that uses superconducting magnet technology in both cyclotron and treatment gantry. According to the company, its device is smaller, lighter, more energy efficient and lower cost than existing proton therapy solutions.
Money Raised: $7.5 million has already been raised from a single investor, and ProNova could continue raising up to $15 million, according to a SEC filing made this week.
How will it be used: A representative from the company did not respond to a request for comment. In an announcement last month, ProNova said the first shipment of its system was planned for 2015.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Investors: Unknown.
Management team: Some of ProNova’s team members, including CEO Terry Douglass, were also part of the team that helped bring PET technology into the clinic in the form of CTI Molecular Imaging, which was acquired by Siemens for $1 billion in 2005.
Market opportunity: There are 10 existing proton centers in operation, and at least eight additional ones in development, according to the National Association for Proton Therapy. But the cancer treatment has proven controversial – critics insist that it’s expensive and only proven to work better than conventional radiation methods in a few rare types of cancer. ProNova says that 320,000 cancer patients diagnosed each year are potential candidates for proton therapy and that its machine will be less than half the cost of existing proton therapy systems. Competitors include IBA, Varian Medical Systems and Optivus Proton Therapy.
[Photo from ProNova Solutions]
