Volpara Provides Digital Health Solutions for the Early Detection of Breast Cancer
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, April 26, 2016 – Volpara Health Technologies Limited (Volpara) today announced the successful close of its initial public offer, raising $10 million from the issue of 20 million shares at 50 cents each, giving Volpara a market capitalisation of $61 million at the issue price. Trading under the symbol “ASX: VHT,” Volpara lists to the Australian Securities Exchange on Wednesday, 27 April 2016.
Volpara provides digital health solutions for early detection of breast cancer. Volpara offers a suite of multi-vendor breast imaging tools that enable personalised breast cancer screening based on objective measurements of volumetric breast density, compression and radiation dose. Volpara technology is installed in more than 30 countries and its geographic footprint continues to expand. To date, more than 9 million women have had their breast density assessed by VolparaDensity.
Rising global breast cancer incidence and mortality represent a significant health threat, with 1 in 8 women in developed countries likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer. Approximately 75 million women worldwide – 39 million in the United States – have mammograms every year. Mammography is the most effective tool available for screening women for breast cancer; however, it does not work equally well for all women, particularly those with dense breasts. It is estimated that 40–50 per cent of women in North America, and 70–80 per cent of women in parts of Asia, have “dense” breasts.
Breast density has not only been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer, it also dramatically impacts early detection. Several large studies have confirmed that as density increases the accuracy of mammography decreases. According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (Boyd et al, 2007), 35 per cent of breast cancer goes undetected by mammography in women with dense breasts and density masks appearance of tumors. Since both dense breast tissue and cancer appear white on a mammogram, it is like looking for a snowball in a snow storm.
Volpara intends to use proceeds from the capital raising in four key ways:
- To strengthen and expand its direct sales team
- To expand marketing in the United States and Western Europe
- To launch new Volpara SaaS products that provide ConstantQuality™ metrics to breast imaging practices
- To drive innovation of new and novel “big data” predictive healthcare and enterprise-wide analytics products that contribute to saving lives.
Volpara Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Highnam, PhD, said he was pleased with the interest investors had shown and the outcome of the capital raising. “To list on the ASX is a significant milestone which enables Volpara to accelerate its growth globally, as well as expand its ability to apply industry-leading digital health solutions to support the paradigm shift to personalised breast cancer screening that is being driven by women demanding better information, better screening systems, better healthcare and better results.”
Volpara recently won the 2016 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership. Frost & Sullivan recognised Volpara for innovative strategies in strengthening its brand and thereby, demand for its products, in the intensely competitive breast density assessment solutions market. This included global distribution deals with leading healthcare companies, including GE Healthcare and Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
ABOUT VOLPARA HEALTH SOLUTIONS
Volpara Health Technologies Limited of New Zealand develops digital health solutions to enable personalised, high-quality breast cancer screening based on objective measurements of breast density, breast compression and patient dose. Available in most markets where breast cancer screening is commonplace, VolparaDensity provides volumetric breast density from both digital mammography and tomosynthesis data. VolparaDensity is part of a suite of quantitative breast imaging tools built on the Volpara Solutions algorithm that allows for personalised measurements of density, patient-specific x-ray dose, breast compression, breast positioning and other factors designed to provide critical insight for breast imaging workflow. For more information, visit www.volparasolutions.com.
