by
Carol Ko, Staff Writer | August 27, 2013
Don Southard, CEO of Infraredx
Boston-based medical device firm Infraredx Inc. announced last week that it raised $25 million from Japan's Nipro Corporation.
The announcement strengthens the agreement between the two firms to distribute Infraredx's TVC imaging system in Japan. A member of Nipro's management team will also join Infraredx's board of directors.
Infraredx's TVC Imaging System is currently the only device approved in both the U.S. and Europe for the detection of lipid core plaque, which some researchers now speculate may be the cause of fatal heart attacks. It uses enhanced intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) to help doctors analyze vessel composition and structure.
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U.S. imaging companies such as Infraredx are making inroads in the crucial Asian diagnostic imaging market, which is the fastest growing in the world at a blistering annual rate of 10 percent. It jumped from 27 percent of the global market in 2010 to 33 percent in 2012.
"It's important for us to be there because that's the most profitable market to be in," Infraredx's chief financial officer, Michael Guarasci, told DOTmed News.
Japan's $4.5 billion diagnostic imaging market is the largest in Asia, with imports making up about half of all sales. While Japan makes most of its own ultrasound, CT and X-ray equipment, it imports the majority of its nuclear medicine and MRI equipment from the U.S.
Japan's demand for diagnostic imaging is due in large part to its massive elderly population and its high levels of health care spending.
One-third of the Japanese population is over the age of 60, and many Japanese have chronic health conditions that require imaging. Additionally, reimbursements in Japan are double that of the U.S., and the Japanese have high annual incomes averaging over $36,000 per capita GDP in 2012.
Infraredx's CEO Donald Southard said that the company is in the process of developing new products for its product pipeline. Additionally, two significant studies conducted in Europe and the U.S. are due to be released in the next 90 days that may substantiate claims that lipid core plaque detection is relevant for heart disease diagnosis and treatment.
"I think you'll see both studies build up our product and prove what we do is meaningful," Southard told DOTmed News.
