The collaboration will help Profound combine its TULSA-PRO system with Siemens Healthineers’ MAGNETOM Free.Max MR scanner and commercialise the combined therapeutics solution through its own sales force
MAGNETOM Free.Max is an advanced MRI scanner from Siemens Healthineers. (Credit: Siemens Healthineers AG)
Canada-based commercial-stage medical device company Profound Medical has formed a non-exclusive collaboration with German medical technology company Siemens Healthineers.
The collaboration aims to offer a complete therapeutics solution combining Profound’s TULSA-PRO system with Siemens Healthineers’ MAGNETOM Free.Max MR scanner.
Profound will commercialise the combined therapeutics solution through its own sales force.
The company will also continue to market its TULSA-PRO system as a stand-alone offering, allowing its customers to use the technology with their choice of MR hardware.
The Transurethral Ultrasound Ablation (TULSA) procedure, performed using Profound’s TULSA-PRO system, employs real-time MR guidance for precision.
It is a one-and-done procedure, performed in a single session that takes a few hours and does not require any hospital stay.
The procedure saves patients’ vital functions while killing the targeted prostate tissue via a precise sound absorption technology that gently heats it to kill temperature (55°C).
It also enables the surgeons to ablate whole- or partial-gland prostate tissue in patients with low-, intermediate, or high-risk prostate cancer, and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).
Profound is anticipated to begin the sales of the integrated solution in 2025, subject to the completion of TULSA-PRO and MAGNETOM Free.Max system integration.
Profound CEO and chairman Arun Menawat said: “We are thrilled to be collaborating with Siemens Healthineers as we work toward offering a total diagnostic and interventional MR solution that can streamline workflow, optimise cost of care.
“This partnership continues to support the Modern Treatment Pathway that allows for more accurate and precise diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up; and brings us another step closer to realising our long-term vision of creating a total diagnostic and interventional MR solution.”
Siemens Healthineers’ MAGNETOM Free.Max is an advanced MRI scanner that combines a 0.55 Tesla field strength with advanced hardware design and deep learning technologies.
Its combination with TULSA will widen the range of MR clinical applications and provides customers with the inherent clinical benefits of a mid-field MR scanner.
MAGNETOM Free.Max, the first and only 80 cm wide-bore system available on the market, also facilitates MR scanning for claustrophobic patients, enhancing the patient experience.
Weighing less than 7,700 lbs and measuring 80 inches, it is the most lightweight, compact whole-body scanner ever offered by Siemens Healthineers.
Furthermore, the new MAGNETOM Free.Max system uses less than one litre of liquid helium for cooling purposes, reducing lifecycle and infrastructure costs.
Siemens Healthineers magnetic resonance global marketing and sales vice president Donald Hardie said: “Our collaboration with Profound underscores our commitment to leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as TULSA-PRO to make a difference in prostate cancer therapy.
“MAGNETOM Free.Max has already brought MR to new places, varying from orthopaedic centres to rural hospitals, where patients need MR imaging most.
“We look forward to collaborating with Profound to help expand access to TULSA as well. Together, we are dedicated to advancing an integrated, MRI-centric approach for prostate cancer patients worldwide.”