Sources inform ''Globes'' that Medic Vision Ltd., which is developing low-dosage radiation CT scanners has raised $3.5 million from Cleveland-based Bridge Investment Fund LLC, which supports Israeli companies seeking to establish headquarters in the city, and private investors.
The sources added that Medic Vision has sold its first scanner at full price to Imaging Healthcare Specialists Inc. (IHS), which operates imaging clinics in California, in a deal estimated at $500,000.
Medic Vision was founded at the Technion Institute of Technology in 2006, and is now based in Tirat Hacarmel. It raised $1 million from 7 Health Ventures. Its chairman, Jonathan Adereth originally worked for Elscint. Medic Vision's system uses low dosage radiation to produce high-resolution CT scans, equal to current devices, but at 20% of the radiation.
Medic Vision CEO Eyal Aharon told "Globes", "The HIS institute advertises itself as offering the lowest radiation diagnostics in California."
Global medical imaging companies, such as GE Healthcare, Royal Philips Electronics NV (NYSE: PHG; Euronext: PHIA), and Siemens AG (NYSE: SI; DAX: SIE) have already launched low dosage products that process signals, but their devices only work with each company's own scanners. Medic Vision's technology can be used by all scanners.
"These companies price their products at $150,000," says Aharon. "We're offering a product suitable for all devices, making it easy to use and saves on training operators. We price our device at $50,000-80,000, with the price falling if the buyer has more than one CT scanner."
Aharon added, "Payment can be per scan - $5-10 - about 1% of the price the institutes are reimbursed by the insurance companies for each patient."
Medic Vision also has six pilot programs for which it receives partial payment. Aharon predicts that the company will achieve a positive cash flow next year.
Awareness about the dangers of CT radiation has been growing lately in the US, after "Archives of Internal Medicine" published a study two years ago, which claimed that CT scans caused 29,000 new cases of cancer a year in the US. Doctors and scientists refute this and similar studies, saying that up to a certain level of radiation, there is no cancer hazard.
Nonetheless, there has been an increase in lawsuits in the US by patients seeking damages for side effects from CT scans, ranging from hair loss to cancer.
Aharon said, "We're reaching the market at just the right time when awareness of the consequence of CT radiation is at a peak."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 9, 2011
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