Elekta acquires Resonant Medical

Elekta today announced the acquisition of Resonant Medical Inc., Montreal Canada. Through this acquisition, Elekta adds exciting new solutions for image guidance as well as highly skilled R&D resources in the field of oncology imaging and motion management.

Resonant Medical Inc. ('RMI') develops systems for image guided radiation therapy of soft tissues using latest generation, 3-D ultrasound technology. Subject to customary closing conditions, Elekta will pay CAD 30 M in cash for the outstanding shares of RMI.

RMI's integrated software solutions have been developed in cooperation with leading academic institutions to improve treatment accuracy for cancer in the prostate, breast, liver, cervix, uterus, bladder as well as head and neck. RMI's equipment is in daily clinical use in the US, Canada, Italy, The Netherlands and Ireland and its research collaborators are considered among the world leaders in their field.

Elekta's President and CEO Tomas Puusepp said "This is really exciting, as it further enhances Elekta's state-of-the-art solutions in IGRT, by adding RMI's leadership in soft tissue visualization and tracking, especially focused on innovative solutions for breast and prostate cancer. In addition, given Elekta's dedication to open architecture, the technology will be made available to customers with other vendors' equipment, making it possible to improve IGRT processes everywhere."

RMI's current products will continue to operate with linear accelerators from all manufacturers and provide outstanding image guidance for soft tissue targets, especially in the breast and pelvic area, without additional x-ray dose or using invasive implanted markers. They can add high quality IGRT to the thousands of linacs in use today that do not have integrated imaging systems, while the soft tissue detail is also highly complementary to linacs already equipped with cone beam CT or MV (portal) imaging.

In addition, RMI will provide useful additions to Elekta's MOSAIQ® treatment planning solutions by displaying soft tissue structures, not easily seen on X-ray computed tomography but in exact spatial correlation with these CT images, and offering a suite of automatic segmentation and contouring tools.

"Elekta has gained an experienced development team with mature, easy-to-use, stable clinical products. And the established sales and marketing infrastructure of Elekta is the perfect foundation to further introduce this valuable technology to the radiation oncology market. Beyond just today however, the really exciting things are yet ahead as we start to integrate RMI:s solutions with MOSAIQ and in the future with our state-of-the art linear accelerators", says Elekta's President and CEO Tomas Puusepp.

RMI was founded in 2000 based on research from McGill University, Montreal. The CEO of the company, Tony Falco, Ph.D. is one of the founders and has over 15 years experience in advanced imaging technology; clinical, product development, supply, and IP creation. The company has 35 employees, of whom most are based in Montreal, Canada.

Tony Falco, CEO of RMI, says: "These are exciting times. RMI provides solutions compatible with all vendors' simulators and linear accelerators and together with Elekta's world-wide customer network it provides us for the first time with the ability to improve clinical standards on a global basis. In addition, being fully integrated with a leading clinical solutions provider like Elekta makes it possible for us to deliver truly unique integrated clinical solutions in the future, all of which is important in improving patient care."

Elekta expects to consolidate RMI into its accounts as from June 1st, 2010. The revenue for 2010/11 is expected to be around CAD 10 M. The transaction is forecasted to have a minor dilutive effect on reported earnings per share during fiscal year 10/11 and be mildly accretive the following fiscal year.