Seneffe, Belgium, February 27, 2012. Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG announced today that the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) has approved its MultiSource® HDR afterloading system for brachytherapy.
MultiSource® is a state-of-the-art afterloader designed for the entire range of HDR brachytherapy applications for cancer treatment. Even complex implants can be performed easily. The system provides highest quality and optimal treatment safety, based on Eckert & Ziegler’s 35 years of experience in accordance with German manufacturing standards.
HDR brachytherapy is a form of radiotherapy in which cancer is treated by irradiation from a short distance. The radioactive source is placed directly inside or close to the tumor’s site. This reduces the risk of damaging the surrounding healthy tissue, while providing a very high dose of localized radiation to the tumor cells.
With MultiSource®, the customer has the possibility to choose either a well-proven Ir-192 source or a particularly cost-effective Co-60 source with a half life time of 5,26 years. Both sources have two things in common: a small size and a favourable dose distribution. The Co-60 source is still unique worldwide and represents the latest high end technology for miniaturized sources on the medical device market. Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG has installed more than 180 MultiSource® devices all over the world, in most cases equipped with a Co-60 source.
Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG exclusively integrates an In-Vivo Dosimetry System inside MultiSource®, as the customer requires. This saves space and makes handling more comfortable. A complete range of applicators, catheters, needles and templates allows to perform not only gynaecological, but also esophagus, bronchus, skin and prostate cancer treatments. An innovative and user friendly treatment planning system, HDRplus™ completes the HDR afterloading setup.
Abel Luzuriaga, Managing Director of Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG said: “We are happy to see the positive developments in the Chinese health care system and have been awaiting the SFDA approval with great expectations. The registration of MultiSource® in China is a significant opportunity for us to contribute in future to the patient-centred care in China and to expand our activities to this very important market with our well proven brachytherapy solutions. Compared to Europe, China has high incidences of esophagus and nasopharynx cancer, which both can be treated with brachytherapy.”
The MultiSource® system will be presented to the Chinese brachytherapy community during the ESTRO Teaching Course “Image-Guided Radiotherapy & Chemotherapy in Gynaecological Cancer - focus on Adaptive Brachytherapy” that will take place in Beijing in March 4-8, 2012.
Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions about the MultiSource® system and to receive detailed explanations from the Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG experts.
Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG employs more than 150 people. The company has been listed on the Euronext stock exchange since April 1997 (Euronext: EZBG; Reuters: EZBG.BR; Bloomberg: EZBG:BB).
If you have any questions please contact:
Claudia Mihlan
Head of Marketing
Paul-Emmanuel Goethals
Karolin Riehle
Investor Relations
Tel.: +32 (0) 64 520 808
E-Mail: ir@bebig.eu
Website: www.bebig.eu