Volcano Steps Up in Vulnerable Plaque By Buying Jomed's IVUS Business

For VolcanoTherapeutics Inc., the addition of Jomed NV 's IVUS business is both an addition to and diversification beyond its current play in thermography as a diagnostic tool to detect vulnerable plaque [See Deal].

As we noted in our profile of Volcano (see "Vulnerable Plaque Heats Up," IN VIVO, October 2002 Also see "Vulnerable Plaque Heats Up" - In Vivo, 1 October, 2002.), key to the company's technology portfolio is a package of spectral analysis software, licensed from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and called the Virtual Histology platform, that uses a radio frequency (RF) back scatter signal from IVUS to create automatic boundaries and geometry of the vessel [See Deal]. This allows for plaque characterization through what Volcano calls pseudo-histology, further enabling real-time diagnosis of vulnerable plaque