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TWST: We would like to begin with a brief historical sketch of Neoprobe
Corporation and a picture of the things you are doing at the present
time.
Mr. Larson: Neoprobe has been around for a little over 20 years. Our
primary focus has been surgical-based diagnostics and therapeutic tools
involving a product line that we have on the market right now ' the
neo2000 Gamma Detection System ' and on the development of
radiopharmaceuticals that we would be using in conjunction with that
system. At the end of 2001, we expanded that arena to include a blood
flow measurement device that could be used in surgery and some other
applications in neurology. At the present time, we have two revenue
producing device lines and some other earlier stage products in the
pipeline related to therapeutics and patient-specific cellular therapy. TWST: Would you describe the two products that are now being sold?
Mr. Larson: The first product that I mentioned, the neo2000 gamma
detection line, is a surgical Geiger counter. It's used primarily in a
procedure called lymphatic mapping or sentinel node biopsy. This is an
alternative to a full axillary lymph node dissection. When they are
trying to determine whether cancer such as breast cancer has spread to
the rest of the body, surgeons look to the lymphatic system in the body
and the series of lymph nodes adjacent to where the tumor is to
determine whether it is a tumor and whether it has started to drain to
the rest of the body into the lymphatic system. The way they used to try
to find those in a full axillary dissection was to remove about 20 or 30
lymph nodes and a roughly softball sized piece of tissue and send those
20 nodes down to pathology to be individually analyzed. Using a
procedure of lymphatic mapping or sentinel node biopsy, they can
identify the first lymph nodes that the cancer may have drained to and
then test that node or an adjacent node to it in a much more detailed
fashion. Based on the studies that have been done so far, with about a
97% accuracy rate, they can predict whether the cancer has spread
without having to remove the additional 20 to 30 lymph nodes. The second
product line, blood flow measurement devices, are primarily used in flow
measurement during cardiac bypass graft procedures to measure the
viability of the newly grafted vessel. Right now, in roughly 85% or so
of current surgeries, surgeons are just using their fingers to palpate
the vessels. In roughly 15% or so of those cases, they use some
quantitative measurement device. We believe that represents a
significant untapped market to potentially improve the quality of the
bypass graft surgery by giving surgeons the quantitative measurement of
how much the flow may have improved as a result of doing the bypass
graft.
Tickers included in this excerpt: NEOP
For more information call (212) 952 7433. The
Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does
not make stock recommendations.
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