Calypso Medical, Varian Medical Systems Enter into Master Development Agreement

Calypso Medical Technologies Inc., a developer of real-time localization technology used for the precise tracking of tumor targets, today announced that it has entered into a strategic development agreement with Varian Medical Systems of Palo Alto, Calif., the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer, to jointly develop products integrating its Calypso System with Varian’s radiotherapy treatment technologies.

Calypso Medical’s proprietary technology utilizes miniature implanted transponders to provide precise, continuous, real-time information about the location of the tumor target during external beam radiation therapy. Any movement by the patient, including internal movement of the tumor, has the potential to compromise treatment accuracy. In contrast to other tumor targeting solutions, Calypso’s technology provides continuous tumor position information, objectively, thereby enabling the correct radiation dose to be delivered to the tumor while minimizing the amount of radiation misapplied to normal tissue.

The Calypso technology is complementary to Varian’s state-of-the-art technology for delivering intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), including RapidArc radiotherapy. Varian is the market share leader for linear accelerators worldwide.

“This strategic development agreement will facilitate advanced treatment capabilities through the integration of the Calypso System with Varian’s market-leading radiotherapy technologies,” says Eric R. Meier, president and chief executive officer of Calypso Medical. “We believe these efforts may prove beneficial for prostate patients as well as some of the more difficult radiation therapy targets such as pancreas and lung. In the near term, two exciting joint development efforts will integrate the motion management capabilities of our Calypso System with Varian’s state-of-the-art treatment platform. This agreement will provide the framework for the joint development of Real-Time MLC Tracking, a future capability* demonstrated by both companies last year, which causes the radiation beam to move in concert with the tumor target based on real-time tracking data provided by the Calypso System.”

“We see this developing technology as an important future enhancement to the accuracy of radiotherapy treatments when tumor motion is a factor,” says Dow Wilson, president of Varian’s Oncology Systems business. “It can augment the image-guidance tools that are integral to Varian’s technology, and enable us to better follow both normal respiratory motion and to react to unanticipated shifts in the target position—for example, when a patient coughs or moves. These capabilities could lead to entirely new treatment approaches for hard-to-treat tumors. We look forward to working with Calypso Medical to integrate our technologies.”

Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will jointly develop products that integrate the Calypso System with Varian’s technologies. Further terms of the agreement were not disclosed.