GE orders 12 CT systems from Israeli co Arineta

Dr. Ehud Dafni Photo: Eli Yizhar
Dr. Ehud Dafni Photo: Eli Yizhar

These are the first commercial orders for Arineta's unique cardiac CT scanner.

Arineta has announced its first order for its special CE cardiac scanner from GE Healthcare, its exclusive marketer. The order is for 12 systems, each of which is being sold to a customer for $1 million. The division of the revenue has not been disclosed, but Arineta is likely to gain several million dollars from the order. Arineta placed its first commercial device in the Carmel Medical Center a year ago, but the current order is its first commercial order. The agreement between Arineta and GE, which also supports development of the product, states that GE will order more systems every year.

Arineta was selected by "Globes" as one of the most promising startups in 2014. Investors in the company include medical device entrepreneur Yosi Morik; Dr. Shmuel Levinger, founder and medical manager of the Eynaim chain of clinics; and Medinol founder and CEO Dr. Kobi Richter. Levinger said today, "Beyond the financial investment and opening the way for marketing of the innovative device all over the world, development of the product is important because it will improve medical treatment and reduce suffering by the patients and their families." Arineta formerly received extensive support from the Chief Scientist.

Arineta CEO Dr. Ehud Dafni explained, "GE supported our development, and is the exclusive distributor. The systems they ordered are designated for being installed in the coming months. We are all hoping that the number of orders increases. At the Carmel Medical Center, we have already done experimental scanning, followed by commercial scanning of 300 patients, all with great success. The scanner works well; Arineta's unique development is definitely a success."

What is new about Arineta's scanner is that it uses two sources of radiation to scan the heart, and it scans all of the heart at once, a feature that is regarded as important in cardiac CT scans. Today, cardiac scans are performed using large and expensive scanners design for both cardiac and other scans. There are two such systems that can also scan the entire heart at once: one made by Toshiba and the other by GE itself, but these are the most expensive CT systems around. According to Dafni, Arineta's system is more successful at this task than other systems, and is also cheaper. "It is more worthwhile for hospitals to buy one CT device at an average price for all the non-cardiac indications and our system for cardiac scans. That way, it can scan twice as many patients as it could by buying the expensive CT designed for all the systems, and which also has improved cardiac scan capabilities."

Dafni added that the systems purchased by GE were designed to be installed in Europe and the US, both of which have approved the product. "There are countries, such as the UK and Scandinavian countries, in which a patient referred for cardiac diagnosis is first given a CT scan. It is easier to penetrate these countries, compared with other countries in which the initial examination can be either CT or another examination, for example a nuclear camera," Dafni explained.

Arineta is currently supported by its existing investors, and it has enough money to conduct its business. As Dafni says, however, "Arineta is always hungry for more money. We are now in the process of building a plant to produce our systems, and we want to raise $20-30 million."

Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on June 25, 2017

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2017

Dr. Ehud Dafni Photo: Eli Yizhar
Dr. Ehud Dafni Photo: Eli Yizhar
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