Lantis Laser Inc. (OTC: LLSR)
Lantis was formed to commercialize the application of novel technologies in the dental industry. The criteria for selected products include competitive edge, exclusivity and large market potential. The Company plans to launch the OCT Dental Imaging System™ in the third quarter of 2008 as its first product. Lantis has exclusive rights to the application of OCT technology in the field of dentistry under its license Agreements with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and LightLab Imaging. OCT was invented in the early 1990’s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is currently being commercialized by Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc. in ophthalmology and by LightLab Imaging for cardiovascular imaging. In a press release on November 8th, 2006 they announced the sale of their 6000 th OCT Stratus System, initially introduced in 2002. At an approximate retail price of $65,000 per System, this generated almost $400 million in sales. LightLab Imaging is commercializing OCT for cardiovascular imaging with systems currently being sold in Europe, and entry in the near future into the US and Japanese markets.
OCT Dental Imaging System™ Development
The OCT Dental Imaging System™ is currently in Phase 2 development. The objective of Phase 2 is to build 5 Beta OCT Systems for clinical use prior to completing the final specification for the pre-production System. The Beta systems are expected to be built in approximately 6 months and will be placed in clinical use with leading clinicians and universities to provide characterization and histological data, in addition to user feedback for the final system specification. Clinical experience is expected to take up to 6 months. System development will include a new software suite to accommodate the high scanning speed and clinical software for image capture, manipulation and storage. The hand-held scanner will be optimized for “in-the-mouth” image capture.
Phase 3 will focus on finalizing the pre-production System specification, including final industrial design. The System will be sold in two configurations: firstly, for integration with other digital modalities such as dental x-ray, and secondly in a cart as a stand-alone System. FDA 510(k) clearance will be applied for in this Phase and this is typically obtained with a 90-day pre-market notification.
Market Potential
In the U.S., dentists form the largest medical sub-group, with 140,000 practicing in 100,000 offices in 380,000 treatment rooms. Europe, Japan and other first world countries have at least another 100,000 offices. Based on the assumption that each office would purchase one OCT System, the world market can be estimated at 200,000 Systems. At the targeted maximum retail price of $20,000 the total potential market for the OCT System is estimated at $4 billion. Lantis believes it can achieve a market penetration of approximately 5%, or $200 million sales at retail over the first 4 years from when sales commence.
The immediate market potential for the OCT Dental Imaging System™ is the installed digital x-ray/camera base of approximately 50,000 units, representing approximately 25% of the dental offices, worldwide. New installations of digital x-ray/camera are expected to be 12,500 per year, worldwide. It is projected that OCT System sales will be 50% into the installed base, 45% as part of new installations and 5% as stand-alone Systems.
What is OCT?
Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a promising new class of diagnostic medical imaging technology that utilizes advanced photonics and fiber optics to obtain images and tissue characterization on a scale never before possible within the human body. When fully exploited, the technology has the potential to dramatically change the way physicians, researchers and scientists see and understand the human body in order to better diagnose and treat disease.
Simply put, OCT combines the principles of ultrasound with the imaging performance of a microscope and a form factor that is familiar to clinicians. Whereas ultrasound produces images from backscattered sound “echoes,” OCT uses infrared light waves that reflect off the internal microstructure within the biological tissues. The frequencies and bandwidths of infrared light are orders of magnitude higher than medical ultrasound signals — resulting in greatly increased image resolution – 8-25 times greater than any existing modality.
Infrared light is delivered to the imaging site through a single optical fiber only..006″ diameter (about the size of the period in this sentence). The imaging guidewire contains a complete lens assembly to perform a variety of imaging functions. The guide wire can be deployed independently or integrated into a dental turbine or laser hand piece.
Light-based, non-radiating, high-resolution imaging of hard and soft tissue makes it ideal for use in dentistry with targeted introduction in 2008.
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