The mobile tower opportunity is intended to increase access to BLC by reducing or eliminating the need for capital budget approvals and instead, enables hospitals to utilize operating budgets to bring the benefits of BLC with Cysview® to their physicians and patients. In some hospitals and clinics in the U.S., capital budget priorities have become a rate-limiting factor for purchasing and adopting Saphira™ equipment to improve TURBT* procedures and the management of patients with bladder cancer.
ForTec has initiated procedures in select territories with the 6 Saphira towers that it currently has in the field, and an expanded rollout of the program throughout the U.S. is anticipated to commence in the third quarter of 2024 with 12 additional Saphira towers that ForTec is preparing for deployment.
ForTec focuses on the urology treatment segment, and is equipped to provide real-time capital equipment from its warehouses across the U.S. With ForTec’s facility network located within 3 hours of >90% of all U.S. operating rooms, and its sales force covering the 48 contiguous states in the U.S., the mobile BLC tower opportunity has potential to significantly increase access and utilization of BLC with Cysview for TURBT procedures. In preparation for the national rollout, ForTec, Photocure, and Karl Storz will hold joint training and planning sessions among their commercial organizations.
Under the mobile tower business model, hospitals or physicians can contact ForTec to schedule cases. Once scheduled, ForTec will deliver the equipment the day before the procedure for proper set up and care. A ForTec technician is present during all surgical procedures. Once the procedures are completed for the day or rental period, ForTec will return the mobile tower to its local depot for servicing and quality control in advance of the next deployment. At any given point in the delivery of care, Photocure, Karl Storz and ForTec will collaborate to ensure seamless service. The per case business model has additional benefits such as roughly doubling the number of field-based account managers between Photocure and ForTec, marketing the use of BLC with Cysview to ForTec’s vast customer network, and ensuring that trained technicians, functioning equipment and parts are always available on-site.
“We are very pleased that the Saphira™ mobile tower program is planned for expansion and is expected nationally throughout the remainder of the year. In our discussions with customers, we saw that Urologists understood the clinical value of BLC with Cysview but in many cases, were limited by a lengthy capital equipment approval process. Additionally, this opportunity allows Photocure access to major hospital systems as ForTec has successfully contracted with national GPOs and opens the opportunity to expand the installed base of BLC throughout the United States. Photocure continues to work towards ensuring better access to quality bladder cancer care and this partnership demonstrates that we are implementing proactive strategies to improve that access,” says Geoff Coy, Vice President & General Manager North America at Photocure.“Collectively all three organizations will be highly focused on driving utilization of BLC with Cysview through this mobile solution. Hospitals will be able to provide BLC with Cysview on a per-case-basis which allows the expense to fall within an operational budget instead of a capital budget. Once the hospital's capital budget frees up, hospitals may choose to acquire the Saphira™ tower permanently.” Geoff Coy concludes.
“For over 35 years, ForTec has been successfully providing mobile technologies to customers nationwide for urology and 10 other therapeutic areas. Hospitals and healthcare care professionals are able to take advantage of ForTec’s pay-per-use model to gain real-time access to groundbreaking technologies and premier service, without having to conduct an extensive capital budgeting evaluation,” said Patrick Filipovitz, CEO of ForTec. “With our mobile Saphira™ tower solution, we aim to expand the use of blue light cystoscopy by reducing the barriers for healthcare institutions to gain access to this cutting-edge equipment. In coordination with Karl Storz and Photocure, our highly trained sales professionals and technicians will support cases and ensure safe and proper operation of the equipment.”
Source: Photocure ASA. (2024). Photocure Announces Mobile BLC Tower Initiative to Expand Access to Cysview in the U.S. [Press release]. https://www.photocure.com/news/photocure-announces-mobile-blc-tower-initiative-to-expand-access-to-cysview-in-the-us-4839889.