Shladot Metal Works Ltd. (TASE:SLAD) is transferring all its medical devices business to a subsidiary called Qray. Zvi Peer as CEO has been appointed CEO. Peer previously managed Fulcrum SP Ltd., Bio Group Technologies Ltd., and Romtech Electronics Ltd. (now Matrix IT Ltd. (TASE:MTRX). After Qray became a fully owned subsidiary, it then raised NIS 470,000 from a private investor, at a company value of NIS 23 million.
Qray plans to raise more money, either on the TASE or from external investors, in order to complete one clinical trial by the end of 2006. The company has not yet decided on the amount to be raised, because this will depend on a number of kinds of treatments to be tested during the clinical trial. The company hopes to obtain EU CE Mark marketing certification within a few months and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in just over a year.
Qray’s products are based on research by Dr. Rachel Lubart of Bar Ilan University. Qray is currently involved in two lawsuits concerning its patent, one against Syneron Medical Ltd. (Nasdaq: ELOS) and the other against Radiancy Inc. The cases are now in court. “We believe there is only a very small chance that these lawsuits will prevent us from marketing our product,” Peer told “Globes: yesterday. “I believe that these lawsuits will be settled in our favor, not theirs.”
Qray’s first product has been under development for seven years at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Development has been completed, except for regulatory certification. “We found a way to filter visible light and focus it in the precisely right quantity to have a positive medical and aesthetic effects. Our first application will be for healing wounds,” said Peer.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on March 20, 2006
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