The terms include financing the scanners with a 20% deposit by the Company, with monthly payments at an average annual interest rate of 7% per annum, and a balloon payment owing after 2 years of operations. Since the PET scanner represents approximately 80% of the capital costs required by Algernon to open a neuroimaging clinic, this is a key transaction for the Company under its newly announced neuroimaging initiative.
The clinics will be the first dedicated, brain-specific PET neuroimaging facilities of their kind in the U.S., focussed on the early-stage detection of Alzheimer's Disease, and will also provide PET scans for other forms of dementia, epilepsy, neuro-oncology, and movement disorders. In recent findings, the Alzheimer's Association reports that nearly 80% of Americans surveyed would want to know if they had Alzheimer's disease before having symptoms, or before those symptoms interfered with their activities. Algernon will work in partnership with neurologists, geriatricians, personal care physicians, and other medical professionals and organizations, to generate patient referrals for the clinics.
In a 2024 article published by Scientific American, the global economic burden of Alzheimer's was estimated to be US$1 trillion in 2019 with a projected increase of up to US$10 trillion projected in 2050. The recent U.S. FDA approval of two new Alzheimer's antibody therapies that require a brain specific PET scan (or alternatively a spinal tap) before Alzheimer's treatments can be started, have created a billion-dollar market opportunity for the brain specific PET scan and Alzheimer's treatment space.
The current number of full body PET/CT scanners in the U.S. is vastly insufficient to serve the massive newly opening Alzheimer's diagnostic and treatment market. The majority of PET/CT scanners, 45% which are located in hospitals, and are primarily prioritized as cancer diagnostic and theranostic tools, and for cardiac imaging, make it challenging to schedule brain specific scans on a timely basis.
Each Alzheimer's PET brain scan conducted at the new clinics will cost approximately US$5,000 which is covered in the U.S. by private insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Catalyst MedTech is the leading U.S. provider of molecular imaging and nuclear medicine technology to physician practices and healthcare systems and has over 500 employees. Catalyst MedTech recently secured the exclusive distribution rights for the Oncovision CareMiBrain™ PET scanning system in the U.S., has ISO 9001:2015 and ...
