Spinout News

SmartTarget Ltd announces sale of technology to Miami-based Intuitive Fusion LLC.

24 January 2020

Smart Target

London, 24 January 2020 SmartTarget Ltd, a spinout company of UCL which successfully brought to market image fusion technology allowing accurate targeting of prostate cancer under ultrasound guidance, has concluded a deal for the sale of its technology and assets to Intuitive Fusion LLC, owner of the Focalyx Suite, a state of the art platform for the delivery of biopsy and focal therapy procedures. As part of the deal UCL Business Ltd (UCLB), the commercialisation company of UCL and a shareholder of SmartTarget Ltd, has entered into a licence agreement granting exclusivity of the underlying patents and core software to Intuitive Fusion.

SmartTarget’s CEO Bruce Lynn commented: “The new home for SmartTarget’s leading ultrasound fusion technology will provide it with added investment and support as well as an innovative vehicle for allowing more patients to benefit from it.”

Intuitive Fusion’s CEO Fernando Bianco commented: “The acquisition of the SmartTarget IP is a major milestone for Intuitive Fusion as it incorporates this leading fusion technology into our Focalyx Suite. The acquired and licensed technology is being upgraded to also support delivery of focal therapy procedures and will be at the core of the Focalyx Fusion platform.”

UCLB Associate Director and SmartTarget board director Marina Santilli commented: “I am delighted by the opportunity offered by Intuitive Fusion for the deployment of UCL’s technology, through its established partnership with SmartBlate LLC, a provider of end to end diagnostic and treatment services for prostate cancer patients. SmartBlate’s existing reach will deliver patient benefit immediately to a larger audience in the US whilst Intuitive Fusion cements new partnerships to deploy their unique and innovative technology model in Europe.”

Development of the SmartTarget technology at UCL was supported by funding from the Health Innovation Challenge Fund, a parallel funding partnership between the UK Department of Health and the Wellcome Trust. The research was also part-funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) University College London Hospital Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

About SmartTarget Ltd:

A spinout of UCL SmartTarget is dedicated to providing high accuracy, easy-to-use and affordable medical image fusion solutions for guiding prostate cancer biopsy and minimally-invasive cancer treatments. Its unique technology is based on research by scientists and engineers within UCL’s Centre for Medical Image Computing (CMIC), one of the world’s leading academic groups in the field of medical image processing and analysis.

About Intuitive Fusion LLC:

Based in Miami, Intuitive Fusion will deploy Focalyx Fusion with its dedicated client SmartBlate LLC, a service company that provides prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment services protocols that precisely destroy cancer within the prostate while sparing healthy tissue.

About UCL Business Ltd (UCLB):

UCL Business Ltd (UCLB), part of UCL Innovation and Enterprise, is a leading technology commercialisation company that supports research and innovations arising from UCL, one of the UK’s top research-led universities. UCLB has a successful track record and a strong reputation for identifying and protecting promising new technologies and innovations from UCL academics. It invests directly in development projects to maximise the potential of the research and manages the commercialisation process of technologies from laboratory to market.