A Medical Device Daily

Positron (Fishers, Indiana) reported that the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care of Ontario, Canada is making positron emission tomography (PET) scanning a publicly insured health service available to cancer and cardiac patients under conditions where PET scans have been proven to be clinically effective. The Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) has adopted an evidence-based approach to the introduction of PET imaging in the province for certain cancer and cardiac indications.

Joe Oliverio, chief technical officer of Positron said, "Ontario, the largest province in Canada, introducing PET into their health system represents a significant opportunity for Positron to offer a cost effective general purpose scanner into a large socialized network. We believe that the market for Positron's Attrius PET scanner is potentially hundreds of units in a relatively short period of time. Health Canada's approval of PET is further evidence that PET is the future of nuclear medicine. Positron plans to focus on marketing and selling its PET product throughout all Canadian provinces and estimates the entire market potential to be approximately 1,000 scanners."

TMD's pathology services available in Beijing

Targeted Molecular Diagnostics (TMD; Westmont, Illinois), a Quintiles (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina) Central Laboratory, reported the availability of digital pathology services in Beijing. The services add to Quintiles offerings used in the development of therapies to treat the world's most pressing health issues, including cancer.

In digital pathology, glass slides containing tissue samples are scanned into a high-resolution electronic image format. During an oncology clinical trial, for example, Quintiles scans images of tissue samples so researchers can evaluate them to determine the potential effectiveness and safety of a treatment. Once a glass slide has been digitized, specialized server software provides secure access to images via the Internet transforming any computer into a virtual microscope.

Digitized slides can be used to help determine whether a drug is working, if a genetic biomarker found in the tissue can be used in drug development, or simply to look for the presence of a tumor. Quintiles can provide researchers with a digital copy of the scanned slide, archive the image for future reference, and host the file on a secure server.

"Digital pathology can revolutionize the drug development and testing process," said Shealynn Harris, MD, Director, Quintiles Medical Laboratory.

"Researchers can collect tissue samples in China, scan a high-resolution image of the slide, transfer the image to a database, and have physicians around the world view the image for diagnosis.

With traditional microscope and slide technology, only one pathologist at a time would be able to look into the lens and see the slide.

Now, a process that could take weeks – shipping slides around the globe for pathologists to review – can be done in minutes."

Orasi Medical opens new Tokyo office

Orasi Medical (Edina, Minnesota), a clinical-stage pharmaceutical services company that develops technology to measure brain function for tracking Alzheimer's disease and other brain related disorders, reported the opening of its new Tokyo office on Monday.

The new office will allow Orasi to aid Japanese pharmaceutical companies in developing medicines for CNS diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, and Migraine.

Orasi's new office in Tokyo will initially focus on the clinical service to pharmaceutical companies in the Asia Pacific (Japan) and EU.

Powered by its Synchronous Neural Interaction Test (SNI Test), patients can receive a highly accurate and objective assessment of brain function (94% sensitivity and 90% specificity for differentiating between Alzheimer's disease patients and healthy controls) with a quick, 10-minute MEG (magnetoencephalography) scan. Orasi has a clear message," the SNI Test coupled with our clinical trial management services offers the simplest and cheapest solution for pharmaceutical and medical companies to measure treatment effect and develop efficacious Alzheimer's drugs for the elderly in a non-invasive way."

The company said it plans to offer additional technology components in the near future, including its integrated online data reporting and analytics platform.

"With the fastest growing aging population in the world, the Japanese market is a growing focal point for many of the pharmaceutical and medical companies who are determined to reach this population and solve this economic and medical crisis. We look forward to solving this problem by providing the only non-invasive test that tracks Alzheimer's disease progression from early stage to late stage which may lead to better treatments for Alzheimer's," said Joseph Baxter, representative director for Asia Pacific and EU for Orasi Medical.