September 20, 2011 – Varian Medical Systems and Calypso Medical Technologies announced they have signed a definitive agreement under which Varian will acquire Calypso, a privately owned, Seattle-based developer and supplier of specialized products and software for real-time tumor tracking and motion management during radiosurgery and radiotherapy. The acquisition, which is anticipated to close in early October subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions, provides that Varian will pay approximately $10 million for Calypso plus potential earnouts based on unit sales of Calypso products achieved beyond thresholds over the next 30 months.
"With Calypso's technology, Varian will be able to offer cancer treatment centers real-time, non-ionizing tumor tracking tools for enhancing the precision of their treatments," said Timothy E. Guertin, president and CEO of Varian Medical Systems. "These products are a perfect complement for Varian's motion management technology, including our TrueBeam platform, respiratory gating and dynamic imaging tools for highly focused radiosurgery. These products should enhance Varian's growth as we integrate them and make them more broadly available to the clinical community through our global marketing and sales channels."
The Calypso System features GPS for the Body technology and Beacon electromagnetic transponders that together provide a solution to continuously and accurately track target location to improve precision of prostate cancer treatments. The transponders are implanted into the prostate or prostatic bed and then tracked with the 4-D localization and tracking system so that beams can be precisely delivered to targeted tumors during radiotherapy and radiosurgery with medical linear accelerators such as Varian's TrueBeam platform.
"The confidence gained from this system supports accelerated, hypofractionated treatments of the prostate where dose escalation requires confirmation of target location at all times," said Guertin. "We believe this technology could support a change in clinical practice to broader acceptance and use of radiosurgery for treating prostate cancer."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also has granted Calypso investigational device exemption (IDE) approval for its clinical study evaluating real-time tracking of lung cancer tumors during radiation delivery. This study utilizes a proprietary transponder that includes an anchoring feature uniquely designed to lock into lung tissue to support very precise radiosurgery procedures.
"If cleared by regulatory authorities, we are optimistic that this will globally impact the ability to target challenging lung tumors with accuracy and precision required to advance clinical outcomes," said Guertin.
"We are extremely gratified by the confidence and promise of this acquisition by Varian. It provides a tremendous opportunity to leverage our GPS for the Body technology as broadly as possible," said Edward Vertatschitsch, Ph.D., president and CEO of Calypso Medical. "Motion management is critical to accurately targeting the cancer so patients can experience the curative benefits of radiation therapy while protecting adjacent healthy tissue. We believe our real-time tracking capabilities will help to close the gap on this clinical challenge and I look forward to joining the Varian team to advance innovations in these areas."
The Calypso business currently generates more than $15 million in annual revenues from sales and service of its products. Calypso currently has an installed base of more than 110 systems in North America and Europe. The tracking system has been used in the treatment of an estimated 10,000 patients for cancer of the prostate.
It is expected that the Calypso business will be integrated into Varian's Oncology Systems segment and will continue to operate in Seattle. Including transaction and integration costs, Varian anticipates that the Calypso acquisition will be slightly dilutive to earnings per diluted share in fiscal year 2012. The acquisition includes Calypso's intellectual property portfolio with some 90 current or pending patents.
For more information: www.varian.com, www.calypsomedical.com
August 09, 2024 
