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Welcome to our comprehensive profile on Positron Corp.
(OTCBB: POSC)
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BUSINESS
Positron Corporation (the "Company") is a growing healthcare company offering cardiac molecular imaging solutions that will transform the delivery of healthcare through radiopharmaceutical distribution, advancing medical imaging technology and by introducing unique disease management applications into the market. The company’s molecular imaging systems incorporate patented and proprietary software and hardware technology for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with heart disease. Through the recent acquisition of Dose Shield, Inc., Positron Corporation will now be able to offer a unique combination of low cost medical imaging technology, affordable radiopharmaceutical solutions and disease specific programs / software differentiating themselves from all other medical device manufacturers.
The Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") approved the initial POSICAM™ system for marketing in 1985, and as of March 31, 2008, the Company has sold twenty-eight POSICAM™ systems, of which twelve are in leading medical facilities in the United States and seven are installed in international medical institutions. The Company has sold 150 SPECT imaging systems through its wholly owned subsidiary Imaging PET Technologies.
Nuclear medicine is a form of diagnostic imaging in which depictions of the internal anatomy or physiology are generated primarily through non-invasive means. Nuclear Medicine is unique verses other radiology modalities in the ability to provide functional images. Diagnostic imaging facilitates the early diagnosis of diseases and disorders, often minimizing the scope, cost and amount of care required and reducing the need for more invasive procedures. Currently, five major types of non-invasive diagnostic imaging technologies are available: x-ray; magnetic resonance imaging; computerized tomography; ultrasound; and nuclear imaging. The most widely used imaging acquisition technology utilizing gamma cameras is single photon emission computed tomography, or SPECT. The Company believes that due to recent market dynamic changes that additional nuclear imaging techniques will become more utilized such as PET technology. The Company is ideally positioned in the diagnostic cardiology imaging market in offering both SPECT and PET and eventually radiopharmaceutical solutions.
According to industry sources, despite the improved image quality and increasing utilization rates of competing modalities such as computed tomography, or CT, and magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, and diagnostic procedures such as CT angiography, SPECT and PET procedures will continue to be used for a substantial number of cardiac specific nuclear imaging procedures. They believe continued utilization will be due to the lower purchase and maintenance costs, smaller physical footprint, easier service logistics of cameras and cost effective radiopharmaceuticals.
PET technology is an advanced imaging technique, which permits the measurement of the biological processes of organs and tissues, as well as producing anatomical and structural images. Other advanced imaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging ("MRI") and computed tomography ("CT"), produce anatomical and structural images, but do not image or measure biological processes. The ability to measure biological abnormalities in tissues and organs allows physicians to detect disease at an early stage, and provides information, which would otherwise be unavailable, to diagnose and treat disease. The Company believes that PET technology can lower the total cost of diagnosing and tracing certain diseases by providing a means for early diagnosis and reducing expensive, invasive or unnecessary procedures, such as angiograms or biopsies which, in addition to being costly and painful, may not be necessary or appropriate.
The medical imaging industry in which the Company is engaged is, however, subject to rapid and significant technological change. There can be no assurance that the POSICAM™ systems or the Pulse Systems can be upgraded to meet future innovations in the PET or SPECT industry or that new technologies will not emerge, or existing technologies will not be improved, which would render the Company's products obsolete or non-competitive.
In 2005, the Company has entered in a joint venture agreement with Neusoft Medical Systems of China and formed Neusoft Medical Systems, LTD. The joint venture relationship brings an immediate infusion of engineering talent, a significant reduction in manufacturing costs, CT technology for the formation of a PET/CT scanner and better access to the world markets. The joint venture will produce new low-cost PET and PET/CT scanners with the first dedicated cardiac PET-only system scheduled to deliver in September ‘08.
In 2006, the Company acquired Imaging PET Technology (IPT), a division of which, IS2 Medical Systems Inc. (IS2), designs, manufactures and distributes a family of scintillation cameras. Gamma cameras manufactured by IS2 (all of them employ SPECT) provide clinical users with the highest resolution, most robust features and highest levels of performance and reliability in the industry. IS2 is ISO certified and meets related medical device, safety and regulatory requirements, including USA FDA and Health Canada approval, and has a CE Mark necessary for European distribution.
IS2’s signature product is its PulseCDC™ compact digital cardiac camera. The key features of the PulseCDC™ include: best performance specifications, lower cost single head version is field upgradeable to dual head, smallest footprint in the industry, remote servicing capabilities are built in, FDA510K cleared for mobile installations and all digital event positioning. It also offers a unique reclining imaging chair/bed that improves patient comfort while allowing for supine and/or prone imaging in 180° or a full 360°. Patents have been filed for key aspects of the design.
IS2 has more than 175 cameras in operation, primarily in the United States. Most recently, the PulseCDC™ received CE marking, and IS2 has closed sales in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia. Installations also exist in China. International markets remain largely untapped, representing significant growth potential. Initial installations exist in Asia, the Middle East and several other markets.
In May 2008, Positron acquired Dose Shield, Inc. and its automated radiopharmaceutical delivery device, known as the Nuclear Pharm-Assist®. The Nuclear Pharm-Assist® creates a “Virtual” Nuclear Pharmacy at customers’ facilities that safely compounds and dispenses radioactive drugs for use with the imaging device.
The Nuclear Pharm-Assist® provides flexibility to an imaging provider that is unprecedented in the industry. Radiopharmaceuticals are cumbersome to compound and typically have a six hour expiration time once the compounding is started. Currently, the compounding difficulties and short drug expiration forces most nuclear medicine departments to utilize the local centralized nuclear pharmacy. With less than 600 centralized nuclear pharmacies mainly owned by four companies in the country, the choices and service are limited for nuclear medicine imaging providers. As a result, a centralized nuclear pharmacy can dictate the hours of operation and what drug manufacturer care givers are allowed. Positron is changing the paradigm to allow the physician to choose which drug manufacturer and when to image patients.
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