Rigid Endoscopes – Partner Search

Optiscan is currently seeking a partner for the global US$1.0Bn pa rigid endoscope market.

Considerable engineering expertise has already been applied to progress product development in the field of rigid endoscopy by incorporating Optiscan’s existing miniaturised confocal technology.

There are many potential applications for Optiscan’s miniaturised confocal technology within the rigid endoscope field.

Strong interest from doctors exists for intra-operative applications that leverage the value of real time imaging, to provide cellular level information which assists with timely and accurate diagnosis of the extent and type of disease, and enables immediate therapeutic intervention.

Doctors are also extremely interested in obtaining cellular level information from tissue types where biopsy is problematic or undesirable, such as pancreas, liver, knee cartilage and the eye.

Current applications under consideration cover several different medical specialities including:

General surgery – intra-operative histology and margin determination of abdominal organ cancers during open surgery or laparoscopic procedures
Transplant surgery - intra-operative assessment of microvasculature function during tissue reperfusion
Ophthalmology – glaucoma management
ENT – intra-operative tissue margin assessment and tissue conservation amidst complex anatomy (oral cancer, vocal cords)
Neurology (including spinal) – intra-operative margin assessment
Orthopaedics – Cartilage histology to provide defect free virtual biopsy including for chondrocyte replacement therapies
Cardiac surgery – intra-operative assessment of microvasculature function during bypass and transplant surgery
Gynaecology – cervical pre-cancer diagnosis and treatment
Orthopaedics – cartilage histology to provide defect free virtual biopsy including for chondrocyte replacement therapies

The commercial attractiveness of a particular application involves consideration of several factors including

Strength of medical need
Size of market
Care pathway and resulting procedure economics
End user buyer behaviour and capitalisation of practice.

Doctor interest in the application of Optiscan’s technology has accelerated significantly since the peer reviewed journal Gastroenterology and subsequent articles have featured clinical diagnostic results obtained during flexible endomicroscope trials.

The global rigid endoscope market is more fragmented than the flexible endoscope market. Leading participants in the global industry are:

Karl Storz
Olympus
Richard Wolf
ACMI
Stryker
Smith + Nephew

However, specialist producers with very strong market shares within particular medical specialties and/or regional geographies also exist.

Partnership discussions are progressing with several companies under confidentiality agreement.

During 2006 we commenced pilot clinical trials in rigid endo-microscope applications. They are intended to reduce the perceived business risk of potential partners by enabling doctors to use an instrument in a clinical setting and provide direct feedback to partners on ease of use in a sterile environment, form and function of the instrument and indications of clinical efficacy.

The trials are in Australia at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital in Sydney and in Germany at Mainz University Hospital. They are focused on high medical need applications identified jointly by investigating doctors and Optiscan. The trials have 3 designated end-points

To ascertain if an outer sheath is a practical and clinically acceptable approach for achieving the necessary sterility of the instrument.
Doctors are able to efficiently incorporate the use of the instrument into the workflows of their surgeries.
Establish clinical utility of endo-microscope imaging in selected applications.

Excellent progress had been made towards confirming the first two end points and evaluation of clinical utility has now commenced.

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