Lantis Laser (LLSR.OB) is developing and commercializing advanced technologies for applications in dentistry. The company has exclusive rights to the application of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) technology for dental diagnostic imaging through its licensing agreements with LightLab Imaging and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. These rights do not expire until 2020.
Lantis Laser announced an agreement a few months ago with Axsun Technologies, leaders in the design of high-performance OCT laser engines. Axsun’s patented swept-source technology enables the highest attainable performance for Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). Lantis Laser’s proprietary OCT Dental Imaging System is a diagnostic aid that provides real-time, high-resolution chairside imaging of dental tissue for the early detection of tooth decay and other oral diseases, at a resolution of up to 10 times that of an x-ray. Since the imaging system is light-based, unlike x-rays, no harmful radiations are emitted.
Lantis is currently in Phase 2 development of this system. Due to the significant upgrade in technology with Axsun’s laser engine, other components in its OCT Dental Imaging System need to be upgraded. As a result of this major system upgrade, full market introduction of the OCT System is now projected to be in the first quarter of 2009 as opposed to the original target date of the third quarter of 2008. Lantis will then apply for FDA 510k clearance in Phase 3 as the company finalizes the system specifications for the product. This clearance is typically obtained with a 90-day pre-market notification.
Once the company gains final approval from the FDA for the OCT Dental Imaging System, a large market opportunity awaits Lantis. It is estimated that the global market for these OCT systems is approximately 200,000 systems. At $20,000 to $25,000 per system the total potential market for Lantis’ OCT System is estimated to be from $4 billion to 5 billion. The management at Lantis is confident that the company will achieve at least $200 million in sales by the year 2011.
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