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The Australian business disrupting global healthcare 🔬 🩺 🚀 · Money News

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  S1: Australia is at the forefront globally of medical technology. We
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  S1: have amazing minds and businesses who are truly world class
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  S1: in their field, and one of those innovative businesses is
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  S1: ASX listed Optiscan ASX ticket code O I, which has
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  S1: recently announced an extension to its collaboration with the Mayo Clinic,
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  S1: widely recognised as the best hospital in the world. The
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  S1: CEO and Managing Director of Optiscan Imaging Limited. As I said,
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  S1: ASX ticket code oil is Doctor Kameel Farah and he
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  S1: joins me this evening on Money News. Kamil welcome to
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  S1: money on this Tuesday night.
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  S2: Thanks for having me.
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  S1: Tell us about opti Scan's business and how it all began.
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  S2: So Optiscan began about 30 years ago as a spin
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  S2: out from Monash University. And basically our claim to fame
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  S2: is that we've, uh, we've been the first company to
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  S2: miniaturize a technology called Confocal laser Endomicroscopy. Essentially, what we've
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  S2: been able to do is to put a microscope in
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  S2: the hand of a surgeon, to see tissue in real
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  S2: time without cutting the tissue out and sending it to
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  S2: a lab.
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  S1: Okay, so your business is really surrounded around, uh, science
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  S1: and surgery, is that correct?
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  S2: Absolutely. Yes. Uh, steeped in lots of science and lots
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  S2: of validation across 30 years of R&D and currently undergoing
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  S2: significant clinical testing here in Australia and also at the
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  S2: Mayo Clinic, uh, in the US.
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  S1: So tell us about the relationship with the Mayo Clinic,
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  S1: because that was a recent announcement you made to the
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  S1: Australian Stock Exchange. What does that involve?
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  S2: Uh, so we have a range of products that satisfy
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  S2: various needs in the workflow of surgeons and pathologists. Uh,
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  S2: one of the particular aspects of medicine developing currently is
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  S2: the reliance on robotic surgery. And the reason why that's
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  S2: occurring is more and more surgeries are minimally invasive. So
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  S2: instead of having to, you know, cut big open wounds
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  S2: into people to remove cancer, what have you. They can
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  S2: do that through little keyholes. So a robotics has become
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  S2: a mainstay of surgical practice. And we're adapting our technology
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  S2: to integrate with robotic systems. So surgeons using robots can
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  S2: also use our technology to view tissue in real time
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  S2: to make decisions in real time. And the relationship with
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  S2: the Mayo is about integrating our system with robotics, using
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  S2: their hospital and their skill set and their surgeons.
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  S1: Of course, one of the hot topics Camille has been AI,
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  S1: which is basically emerged as a major money news issue
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  S1: this financial year. Obviously, today is the 30th of June,
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  S1: but obviously your business was maybe ahead of the pack.
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  S1: And is that part of what his optic scans med
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  S1: tech business?
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  S2: Yes, absolutely. It's very interesting that you should point that
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  S2: out because although we are a hardware company in origin,
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  S2: our devices create digital images. And that is absolutely central
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  S2: to using AI and machine learning algorithms. So part of
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  S2: the transformation of the business for us is to move
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  S2: more into the AI space and into software. So we've
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  S2: created our own AI algorithms for various cancers of the
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  S2: human body. We'll continue to do that as our hardware
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  S2: gets cleared through the FDA. And we're building a business
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  S2: that will move more and more towards digital health solutions
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  S2: powered by AI.
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  S1: Right. So in terms of technology and you've mentioned the
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  S1: robotics technology using you also mentioned the US, which I'm
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  S1: going to come back to in a minute. But tell
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  S1: us about your product compared to rival technologies that are
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  S1: already out there in the market.
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  S2: So really, in the context of rival technologies, we don't
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  S2: believe there is a significant rival technology to our products.
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  S2: We believe the status quo of what we do currently
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  S2: in healthcare is the rival technology. And as a disruptor,
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  S2: that's what we're trying to change. So we want to
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  S2: move away from the old ways of doing things and
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  S2: procedures that were invented nearly 100 years ago, where we
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  S2: take a bit of tissue from the operating room or
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  S2: in a doctor's surgery. We send that to the Path lab.
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  S2: It gets processed through a whole series of procedures that takes,
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  S2: you know, 2 or 3 days to get an answer
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  S2: back to the doctor. Instead, we can actually use our
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  S2: technology to apply onto the tissue in real time. The
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  S2: doctor gets an answer. Immediately. The patient gets an answer. Immediately,
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  S2: the surgeon gets an answer immediately. So we're trying to
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  S2: basically change workflows and change the whole process of pathology
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  S2: by arming surgeons with these digital tools in real time,
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  S2: making sure that the AI is supplementing those digital tools
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  S2: in real time so they can make informed decisions while
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  S2: the patient is there and why, while they actually need
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  S2: that decision made not 2 or 3 days later. So
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  S2: that's a significant shift in, uh, in mindset. That's where
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  S2: we believe our greatest competitor is as far as technology really.
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  S2: Optiscan is at the leading edge of. The development of
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  S2: the technology. We have the highest quality imaging, the highest resolution,
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  S2: and the greatest depth of imaging, which rivals and equals
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  S2: what is currently available in standard of care pathology labs.
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  S1: You touched on the trials and you touched on the US.
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  S1: So how are these trials financially funded and how much
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  S1: does your treatment cost.
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  S2: Um so currently our trials are funded um, through the
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  S2: company itself. So we've got two sponsored studies, um in
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  S2: the US. Uh, we've got three sponsored studies here in Australia.
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  S2: There are about half way through, we're collecting data to
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  S2: basically put that in front of the FDA as the
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  S2: evidence required to clear our products in the US market. Um,
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  S2: our devices currently don't have any associated, um, price points, uh,
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  S2: provided to them. Uh, we believe there's a myriad of
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  S2: ways we can commercialize the products, either through capital expenditure
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  S2: with capital hardware, also through a software as a service, um, application, uh,
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  S2: and also through other avenues, whether they be licensing or, um,
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  S2: a user pays. So we do have flexibilities in the
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  S2: way that we want to commercialize the product. And, uh,
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  S2: we're keeping that flexible on purpose because the market is
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  S2: changing in the US specifically, but also in healthcare generally.
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  S2: So you'll find some hospital networks are very big on
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  S2: user pays versus others that are very happy to acquire
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  S2: their own capital equipment and manage it themselves. So we
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  S2: want to stay flexible in that regard to increase our
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  S2: foothold into the market.
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  S1: Camille, thank you so much for joining us on this
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  S1: Tuesday night on Money News.
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  S2: Thanks for having me.
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  S1: That was Doctor Camille Farrar, the CEO and managing director
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  S1: of ASX listed Optiscan Imaging Limited.