Spoke yesterday with Teresa Wilson, Director of Strategic Analysis at CeloNova in Newman Georgia about the company's product, Embozene Colour Advanced Microspheres. CeloNova is involved in producing microspheres for embolization, an increasingly used technique in the field of Interventional oncology, both for the treatment of tumours or areas of unwanted bleeding, whereby Interventional Radiologists or specially trained physicians inject drugs or radiation into a blood vessel to target affected areas.
CeloNova is not alone- their key competitors in producing microspheres are BioCompatibles, Biosphere Medical and Boston Scientific, but where CeloNova differentiates itself is in being the first company to offer colour-coded microspheres to allow the doctor conducting the procedure to clearly see which calibration of tiny microsphere is being used, thus offering strong benefits in terms of patient safety, but also to help with the speed of the procedure, thus minimising possible radiation exposure time.
The use of microspheres to treat cancers has come about as doctors and researchers looked for targeted solutions that would allow the cancer itself to be destroyed whilst allowing the healthy tissue around the cancer to remain undamaged. Furthermore, because the threat to healthy tissue is reduced, higher doses of radiation or drugs can be applied to the tumour.
CeloNova has been in the press a couple of times in recent weeks, firstly when Dr Franco Orsi and his colleagues at the European Institute of Oncology concluded that the company's small, highly calibrated Embozene Microspheres were better than other products for the treatment of liver cancer and metastases. The EIO team has developed a technique to cut off the blood supply deep within the tumour bed of primary and metastatic liver tumours, leading to effective tumour control and reduced recurrence of tumours without thr use of chemotherapy drugs. The team highlighted that "The dimension and shape of embolic particles seem to be the most important characteristics for this aim".
This week the company also announced that it had received BSI approval for an expansion of the list of medical indications for which Embozene Microspheres can be used, as well as the addition of a tenth size of the product. In Europe, Embozene Microspheres are now approved for the treatment of liver cancer, uterine fibroids, tumour of the head, neck, torso and skeletal system, for bleeding and trauma, and for reducing pre operative bleeding throughout the body with the exception of the central nervous system.
Theresa also mentioned that the product has been piloted for use in cardiovascular procedures involving overactive heart muscles.
I asked Theresa about the challenges of interventional oncology gaining more mainstream acceptance, and she highlighted the continuing issue of "medical turf wars", that there are huge levels of competition between medical specialities and that the referral is always tricky to work out. This may be a specifically US problems- CMR has had discussions with a number of interventional radiologists in the UK, and the patients seem to be referred quite equally by phyisicans- as one told me "there are more than enough to go around".
Again, the U.S. system allows for, if not encourages, specialist physicians to 'market' themselves and their practices with the goal of maximizing their personal gain from their expertise; the 'entrepreneurial model'.For other innovators in the microsphere area, see Dr. Naomi Halas, Rice University, Houston, TX at http://www.ece.rice.edu/~halas/.
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