Volcano Corporation Makes Big Bets on Optical Coherence Tomography: Projects OCT Cardiology & Related Markets At More Than $1B

Entities Mentioned

• Volcano
• Axsun Technologies
• CardioSpectra
• LightLab Imaging
• Eric A. Swanson

1. 

   Volcano Corporation, a leading company in the intravascular ultrasound, seems to be a big believer in the Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) cardiology market and is backing that belief with big bets. Last year Volcano acquired CardioSpectra (a 2 year old startup company out of the University of Texas at Austin) for $63M ($25M plus an additional $38M earn out). See article. More recently Volcano acquired Axsun Technologies (a leading company in micro-optical systems technology) for $21.5M mainly for their high performance, compact, and low-cost swept-source laser. See article.  A laser their main OCT competitor Lightlab Imaging (a leading company in the OCT space) stated to have exclusive cardiovascular rights to.  See article.  So far $84.5M plus cost of running CardioSpecta, Axsun, and associated clinical trials in the US, Europe, and Japan.  The motive seems clear from Volcano's recent presentation at the 27th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. One of the many interesting aspects of that presentation is Volcano's projection of the potential OCT cardiology market at greater than $1B. Volcano expects to launch their OCT cardiology product in the USA and Europe in 1H 2010 and a Japan launch is slated for 1H 2011.  A webcast recording and slides from that presentation can be seen here.

   Eric Swanson
   OCTNews
   
   

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