Det er vel fair at jeg ogsÄ deler i denne sammenheng, here goes:
Regarding the recent announced Agreement with RW, is it possible for you to ellaborate further on this, in your opinion what is the main take-away from this ?
«The Richard Wolf/Photocure agreement is focused on ensuring that physicians and patients will have access to the best care in the bladder cancer surveillance setting with a flexible BLC system. Richard Wolf is a premier manufacturer of endoscopy equipment including both blue light and white light cystoscopy in both the surgical and surveillance settings around the world. As a result, we have a first-class partner for this new system. Importantly, the opportunity is quite large with an estimated 1.65 million bladder cancer surveillance procedures annually in the U.S. and major EU countries, yielding a total addressable market opportunity (or TAM) of $1.3 billion. Given what we believe to be relatively low investment, we believe this is a smart deal for the Company from an ROI standpoint.»
I am also wondering about time-schedule, both for the development of equipment and regulatory path required before the new solution/flexible scope reaches the market
Is the flexible scope for the most part already ready for testing ? Or does it take 2-3 years to have it approved according to current non-declassifed procedures ?
«Richard Wolf is in the process of developing its next-generation 4K HD white light flexible cystoscope, and with our new Agreement, Richard Wolf is now working to incorporate blue light capability into this system. The current estimated time for this system to make it to market is 2 to 2.5 years, including the development and regulatory processes. However, if engineering goes smoothly, the timeline could be compressed. We plan to provide development updates as appropriate and as agreed by Richard Wolf.»
«We cannot disclose certain financial terms of the agreement including the cost split between Richard Wolf and Photocure. However, I can say that we believe the costs to be borne by Photocure are not very significant and will be spread out over several quarters. Our contribution to the development of this system is well within our means and could be looked at as a cost of doing business.»
And finally, will Pho maintain full margin on the sales of the «Cysview-component?
«Yes, we will maintain our full margin to our product (Hexvix/Cysview) that is used with the new flexible BLC system. That is the major value driver of Photocure entering into this Agreement, plus a small royalty on sales of the flex BLC systems.
On basis of the market reaction to the news yesterday I believe some kind of clarification would be in place.
Yes, we were a bit surprised ourselves. We are happy to clarify and will have more to review about this Agreement when we report our Q2 earnings on August 7th.
Thanks and have a great rest of the Summer!