February 24 2000
Veenendaal, 24 February 2000 - Nucletron B.V. today announced an agreement with Guidant Corporation to service brachytherapy afterloaders for a new radiation treatment that is being developed to reduce re-blockage or restenosis of coronary arteries. Nucletron will provide the world-wide installation, maintenance and repair of a catheter-based afterloading system that temporarily places a small radiation source within an artery to reduce restenosis after treating the vessel with angioplasty. Guidant, a leader in the emerging field of intravascular radiotherapy, is preparing for the international distribution of the system on basis of results from clinical trials for which Nucletron provided the coronary afterloaders and the service and source replacements. "We feel very excited about this partnership" said Bert de Groot, Managing Director of Nucletron B.V. and Chairman of the Executive Board of Delft Instruments. "The benefit to Guidant is that they do not have to invest in the time consuming setting up of a service organisation. For Nucletron it means a further expansion of her service activities which are considered core business. This partnership also links to another activity, vascular brachytherapy outside the heart, in which Guidant and Nucletron cooperate". Nucletron is marketing the Paris Centering Catheter System for radiation of leg arteries, to be used with its well-known microSelectron-HDR afterloader that is available in about 1000 oncology departments all over the world. The Nucletron Paris Catheter which has been developed by Guidant is available outside the USA. US market approval will be sought after successful completion of the PARIS (Peripheral Artery Radiation Investigation Study) clinical study which is led by Nucletron. "It is to be expected that Vascular Brachytherapy Applications will develop into a significant business opportunity over time. It is our intention to play an important role in this field together with our partner Guidant". On short term Nucletron can expect an additional turnover of several millions of guilders annually, for a medium long term we expect this to be in the order of several tens of millions of guilders", De Groot said. Background information Coronary Interventions, like balloon angioplasty, are used to reopen clogged arteries in about 1,000,000 patients per year but restenosis due to tissue regrowth constitutes a major challenge for the interventional cardiologist since it can occur in as many as 40% of the cases after the treatments. Radiation is known to inhibit cell growth and has shown in studies to reduce the restenosis rate when applied in the form of brachytherapy, i.e., inside the artery. A vascular brachytherapy team of a cardiologist, a radiation-oncologist and a physicist will use the Guidant GALILEOTM Intravascular Radiotherapy System (IRS) afterloader to automatically position a miniature beta source wire at the affected artery segment via a centering catheter. A beta isotope is used to allow for treatment times of just a few minutes without the need to heavily invest in additional shielding of the coronary intervention lab. The GALILEO IRS is not available in the USA.
Guidant, a global leader in the medical device industry, provides innovative, minimally invasive and cost-effective products and services for the treatment of cardiovascular and vascular disease. The company recognized that Nucletron, as the world leader in remote afterloading brachytherapy, was in the best position to assure world-wide service for the new coronary afterloader business. Nucletron has offices in 11 countries and a global service network with some 200 employees supporting various kinds of radiotherapy devices and planning software. Nucletron B.V., with headquarters in Veenendaal, The Netherlands, is a world-wide leader in radiotherapy systems, and specializes in some of the most innovative products used for cancer treatment. Nucletron is the world leader in remote afterloading brachytherapy, supplying the majority of all systems world-wide. Nucletron B.V. is a subsidiary of Delft Instruments, an international group of companies with some 1100 employees and annual sales of well over NLG 400 million.