Healthcare Industry News: iodine
News Release - December 3, 2009
IsoRay Announces Iodine Distribution Agreement with GE Subsidiary, Oncura
RICHLAND, Wash., Dec. 3--(HSMN NewsFeed)--IsoRay, Inc. (Amex: ISR ) announced today that it has signed a distribution agreement with Oncura to distribute the I-125 brachytherapy seed, OncoSeed™.Dwight Babcock, Chairman and CEO stated, “By adding I-125 seeds to our prostate product offering we can now be a full service provider to our customers. OncoSeed brings with it a substantial and well documented track record of efficacy. While we believe that Cesium-131 adds an important new dimension to brachytherapy for a variety of anatomic sites including prostate, we see strategic value in supporting our customers that have not yet converted all their practice to Cesium-131.”
Mr. Babcock added, “We believe the ability to offer I-125 seeds will allow us to expand our Cesium-131 sales through GPO contracts which require multiple sources from a single provider. Previously, by not having two sources, we have been excluded from bidding on large GPO contracts and offering Cesium-131. The ability to obtain GPO contracts should open up a large group of physicians who want to use our Cesium-131 brachytherapy seeds.”
OncoSeed, known by physicians as Model 6711, has been available since it was launched in 1993. It has the largest market share of any I-125 brachytherapy seed worldwide.
Mr. Babcock concluded, “This is an important step to support our physician partners and this agreement allows IsoRay to supply I-125 seeds to its Canadian partner, Inter V Medical, thus providing additional revenue and margins to IsoRay.”
About IsoRay
IsoRay, Inc., through its subsidiary, IsoRay Medical, Inc., is the sole producer of the Cesium-131 brachytherapy seed.
The Cesium-131 seed offers a significantly shorter radiation half-life than the two other isotopes commonly used for brachytherapy, which results in a substantially faster delivery of therapeutic radiation, a theoretically improved radiation delivery against aggressively replicating cancer(a), and the potential for a reduced longevity of common brachytherapy side effects(b).
Cesium-131 is currently used in the treatment of prostate cancer(c) and ocular melanoma(d), among other cancerous conditions.
IsoRay is based in Richland, Washington. More information is available about IsoRay at www.isoray.com.
(a) Armpilia CI, Dale RG, Coles IP, et al. The Determination of Radiobiologically Optimized Half-lives for Radionuclides Used in Permanent Brachytherapy Implants. International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics 2003;55(2):378-385.
(b) DeFoe SG, Beriwal S, Smith R, Benoit R. Is there decreased duration of acute urinary and bowel symptoms after prostate brachytherapy with cesium 131 isotope? International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics 2008;72(S1):S317.
(c) Bice WS, Prestidge BR, Kurtzman SM, Beriwal S, Moran BJ, Patel RR, Rivard, MJ. Recommendations for permanent prostate brachytherapy with (131)Cs: a consensus report from the cesium advisory group. Brachytherapy 2008;7(4):290-6.
(d) Melhus CS, Rivard MJ. COMS eye plaque brachytherapy dosimetry simulations for 103Pd, 125I, and 131Cs. Medical Physics 2008;35(7):3364-71.
Safe Harbor Statement
Statements in this news release about IsoRay's future expectations, including: the advantages of our Proxcelan Cesium-131 seed, whether IsoRay will obtain additional market share for Cesium through offering iodine, whether the ability to obtain GPO contracts will result in actually obtaining these contracts and increasing sales, whether IsoRay will be successful in distributing the OncoSeed™, whether IsoRay’s relationships with Inter V and Canadian physicians will result in sales in Canada, whether IsoRay's Cesium-131 seed will be used to treat additional cancers and malignant disease, whether physicians and facilities will adopt Cs-131, future demand for IsoRay's existing and planned products, and all other statements in this release, other than historical facts, are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 ("PSLRA"). This statement is included for the express purpose of availing IsoRay, Inc. of the protections of the safe harbor provisions of the PSLRA. It is important to note that actual results and ultimate corporate actions could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements based on such factors as physician acceptance, training and use of our products, our ability to successfully manufacture, market and sell our products, our ability to manufacture our products in sufficient quantities to meet demand within required delivery time periods while meeting our quality control standards, our ability to distribute a product we do not manufacture, our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights, whether additional studies are released and support the conclusions of early clinical studies, patient results achieved when Cesium-131 is used for the treatment of cancers and malignant diseases beyond prostate cancer, changing levels of demand for IsoRay's current and proposed future products, changes in laws and regulations applicable to our product both in the United States and internationally, and other risks detailed from time to time in IsoRay's reports filed with the SEC.
Source: IsoRay
Issuer of this News Release is solely responsible for its
content.
Please address inquiries directly to the issuing company.
