Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GI-BCT (Disruptive imaging technology for accurate and painless breast cancer diagnosis)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2018-05-01 al 2018-08-31
Breast cancer kills 522,000 women annually worldwide. Although high sensitivity of the current gold standard screening procedure (FFDM) in fatty breast, it misses out 50% to 75% of cancers in dense tissues. Hence, patients are usually recalled and complementary equipment (US, MRI) is used to provide reliable diagnostics. To minimize recalls, saving time and money to the health system and avoiding women psychological stress, GratXray is developing a multi-modality 3D scanner that exceeds the whole breast imaging chain capabilities. In Phase 1, we assessed and validated technical, commercial, legal and financial aspects and drew up the execution plan for Phase 2 that lies in to accelerate technical development and prepare a solid commercialization strategy to launch our GI-BCT system as soon as possible.
Our TRL7 2D prototype is ready. We have selected our engineering and design partners and we have started the 3D scanner development under CE and FDA regulations. According to the FS, GI-BCT systems will be directly sold to hospitals and breast centers at a price of €860’000 with an annual service contract of €86’000. First target markets will be Switzerland, Germany and Sweden, where we have support of KOLs. Industry partnership will be considered for further expansion to US (we have contact with Philips, Siemens and GE). Customers will be attracted by an early science-driven dissemination, followed by a professional advertising campaign. Interest will be fostered by our scientific dissemination outcomes: 34 publications and 14 news articles since 2011 and “Swiss Technology Award” in 2017. We estimate an investment of €5.7M and 2 years to reach the commercialization stage. We plan to raise €3M from Phase 2 and the rest from business angels and venture capital (€521k already raised to October 2018). After starting to market, we estimate 2 years to reach break-even and 3 to get a net profit of €8,0M at a ROI of 46,0%.
GI-BCT system will allow hospitals to improve medical care quality, optimize costs, simplify resources management and attract new patients. Radiologists will have access to a faster, accurate and highly sensitive breast cancer screening method with new diagnosis contents that simplifies interpretation of results. Women will undergo safe and less unpleasant experiences through a painless, accurate and reliable procedure providing immediate results. We have four Letters of Support from buyers and users stating their need for GI-BCT system.