If T-Ray Sciences Inc. (TSX-V:THZ) can commercialize its cancer detection device, it will provide doctors with more ammunition to fight the disease and help write a classic tale of what can be done when academia, research labs and the private sector work together.
On November 16 the BC Cancer Agency (BCCA) gave the Vancouver company exclusive rights to the Verisante Core, which is used in the early detection of lung cancer.
This follows an earlier licensing deal between the two groups, under which T-Ray acquired rights to the device to detect skin, gastrointestinal tract and cervical cancers. The Verisante Core is a biopsy camera that allows doctors, dermatologists and oncologists to find cancerous growths through imaging rather than through surgically removed tissue samples.
After more than 10 years of development in BCCA labs by a team led by co-inventor Haishan Zeng, the device is being put into the hands of T-Ray for the final stages of commercialization.
T-Ray expects the device to receive Canadian and European market approval for detecting skin cancer in 2011.
Not all licensing deals between research teams and commercial businesses foster ongoing collaboration. Researchers usually return to the lab to begin another project while the business pursues commercialization of its newly acquired asset.
But T-Ray and the BCCA remain as dependent on each other as they were when they met two years ago.
At that time, the BCCA had begun shopping around for a functioning Verisante Core prototype. Like most lab operators, Zeng and the BCCA team had neither the resources nor the will to shift their attention from research to commercialization.
“Our researchers can build a foundation and make the exciting discoveries,” said Patrick Rebstein, associate director of the BCCA’s technology development office. “But we don’t have expertise or the resources to fully develop a product that can make its way to hospitals and clinics around the world.”
Two years ago T-Ray was developing its own cancer detection device using far-infrared spectroscopy. Its X-ray-like imaging technology scanned and imaged moles or suspicious lesions on the body in minutes.
“We were … trying to get our speeds up so that we could fit [the device] into the patient process flow in a doctor’s office or a hospital,” said Thomas Braun, T-Ray’s CEO.
But the firm soon found that the BCCA was years ahead of it in developing a similar device. Zeng had refined the agency’s far-infrared spectroscopy technology to the point where scanning and imaging took less than half a second.
As well, the BCCA had already done clinical studies on more than 1,000 lesions. It was therefore much further ahead in the regulatory process than T-Ray. As T-Ray takes care of the business side of product commercialization – financing, marketing and jumping through regulatory hoops – it’s relying on the BCCA, through a collaboration deal, to conduct further clinical studies and continue to refine the Verisante Core into a more compact and user-friendly device.
Zeng and other members of the BCCA team have consulting contracts with T-Ray.
“That gives us access to his whole lab and all of his assistants, so we don’t have to bear the cost of setting up our own lab,” said Braun.
“We’re the opposite of ‘thanks for the technology, see you later.’ We’re marching forward arm in arm with the BCCA because nobody knows as much about this technology as these guys do.”
The University of British Columbia’s department of dermatology and the Vancouver General Hospital’s lung centre are also taking part in late-stage development; the two are closely affiliated with each other and the BCCA.
With the three groups’ expertise combined, Braun said T-Ray is tapping into some of the world’s best cancer research know-how.
Verisante Core’s development thus far has been translational research at its best, with a commercial entity and research labs relying on each other’s respective unique abilities to advance a medical treatment.
Rebstein noted that it’s also a unique local success story.
“It’s gratifying for it to be a local story, because we often feel that we have to look globally to make these relationships. This was serendipity. We almost didn’t know about this great company in our backyard.”
Vancouver
CEO: Thomas Braun
Employees: N/A
Market cap: $6.6m
P/E ratio: N/A
EPS: $(0.03)
Sources: Stockwatch, TSX, globe investor