LAS VEGAS, Aug. 24, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At times, breast cancer awareness initiatives seem almost ubiquitous, a pink parade of celebrities and marketing inviting the public to understand and support the cause. Yet oddly enough, there seems to be a scarcity of medical device assets at the critical intersection of women's health care and oncology. In fact, we are not currently aware of any other publicly traded companies other than SenoRx Inc. (Nasdaq:SENO) that are exclusively focused on breast cancer intervention, one of the top killers of women. With considerable product successes already, SenoRx's penetration thus far may well be likened to the proverbial first strike in an oil field of mass proportions.
SenoRx is a medical device company that develops, manufactures, and sells minimally invasive devices for the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer and is a rapidly growing participant in the medical device market that includes Endologix, Inc. (Nasdaq:ELGX), Micrus Endovascular Corporation (Nasdaq:MEND), Vascular Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq:VASC), Solta Medical, Inc. (Nasdaq:SLTM), and Volcano Corporation (Nasdaq:VOLC). A report featuring SenoRx is available at: www.IntegrityIR.com/SENO
The lack of companies dedicated to diagnose and treat women's breast cancer extends beyond public companies. In fact, there are only a handful of late-stage private companies either in breast cancer diagnosis or treatment and there is a dearth of small cap public companies in women's health in general, save a few single-product companies focused on gynecological concerns. Moreover, there also seems to be little activity outside the United States in the aforementioned arena.
Certainly, there are large companies which possess women's health or oncology franchises. SenoRx does not own the space despite its successes thus far. Although data confirms that women's health care and oncology are two of the fastest growing medical treatment market segments, we have not seen the larger companies display a proven ability to sustain innovation. To the contrary, in past cycles it has been the smaller companies like SenoRx that are the true innovators, and which are then bought-out by the larger medical device aggregators. For example, VNUS Medical Technologies, Inc., formerly a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ in the medical device space, was recently acquired in June 2009.
SenoRx's success extends well beyond the uniqueness of its placement at the crossroads of women's health care and oncology. As with a few of the large imaging companies, SenoRx understands the essential nature of early detection, a characteristic that has helped SenoRx penetrate its market and establish itself against the larger firms.
To this end, it is expected that SenoRx's early detection foothold in the vacuum assisted breast biopsy (VAB) device market, driven by advances in imaging, including digital mammography, should experience significant growth in markets beyond the United States. Driven by government initiated national screening programs and paired with a lack of meaningful competition, this appears to be playing in SenoRx's favor.
In the women's breast oncology arena, the areas of opportunity for a company like SenoRx to develop new and next generation products are clear. Despite already having two strong platforms (minimally invasive tissue removal technologies and implantables) in this attractive growth market, there remain many areas for further expansion, such as:
Diagnosis * Opportunities in tissue stratification * High-risk group early detection with biological markers or fluid analysis * Lymphdemia detection * New biopsy device markets such as tetherless vacuum-assisted devices Therapy * Breast reconstruction * Lesion excision * Lesion ablation * Image-guided radiation therapy * Implantables as drug delivery vehicles * Lesion localization
SenoRx currently has R&D capabilities in five of the above areas and the ability to distribute products developed in all ten areas of opportunity. Importantly, these additional opportunities for expansion are accretive and synergistic with SenoRx's proven core competencies.
Perhaps as more emerging nations begin to devote more capital to women's health care SenoRx will be joined by other competitors at this crossroad of women's health and oncology. Meanwhile, the company has been successfully executing its business plan as promised in a growing arena in which few have yet to focus.
Statements herein may contain forward-looking statements and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties affecting results. Small Cap Sentinel is property of Integrity Media Inc. (IMI). IMI provides no assurance as to the subject company's plans or ability to effect proposed actions and cannot project capabilities, intent, resources, or experience. The subject companies haven't always approved the statements made in this report. This report is neither a solicitation to buy nor offer to sell securities and is for information purposes only and shouldn't be used as basis for investment decisions. IMI isn't an investment advisor, analyst or licensed broker dealer and this report isn't investment advice. IMI has been paid thirty-thousand dollars by SenoRx for this report and other services to be performed over the remainder of the calendar year. Paid reports constitute a conflict of interest as to IMI's ability to remain objective in communication regarding subject companies.