Trimedyne Catheter Goes Abroad : Marketing of Laser Device to Begin in Three Countries

Trimedyne Inc. said Thursday that within 90 days it will begin marketing its laser catheter in the United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden for treatment of arteriosclerosis in leg arteries.

The three countries are the first to approve the new Laserprobe-PLR device, which uses a tiny laser beam located at the end of a catheter to vaporize fatty deposits blocking leg arteries. At present, bypass surgery and amputation are the primary treatments available to treat the disease.

Santa Ana-based Trimedyne is one of a handful of companies in the United States that is pioneering laser technology for medical use, according to Pieter Halter, editor of Biomedical Business International, a Tustin-based trade journal.

“Trimedyne is on the leading edge, without a doubt,� Halter said.

Michael Henson, Trimedyne’s president and chief executive, said the company is seeking approval to market the device in France, Italy and Spain. By the end of 1986, he said, the company plans to market the Laserprobe throughout Europe.

Potential Market

The potential European market for the device in treating leg arteries alone, Henson said, is worth about $70 million a year. “If in three years we penetrate a third of that market, we will be satisfied,� he said.

In February, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave Trimedyne permission for advanced clinical trials of the Laserprobe for treating arteriosclerosis of the leg in the United States.

Although current approvals permit using the device only to clear blocked arteries in the legs, the company plans to seek both domestic and European approval for tests of the device in treating heart disease, Henson said.

While European approval for treating legs “is a step in the right direction,� said Jules Marx, medical technology analyst for the New York investment banking firm of D.H. Blair & Co. Inc., using laser technology against heart disease is another story.

Leg Arteries

Leg arteries are more accessable than those in the heart, where the catheter must travel longer distances through narrow, winding blood vessels.

“I would not pass it off as a given technology for 1986,� said Marx.

During the second fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, the last period for which financial results are available, Trimedyne had a net loss of $187,000 compared with a net loss of $273,000 the prior year. The net loss for the quarter ended March 31 is expected to fall 44% to about $140,000 from $250,000 a year earlier, the company said.

Research spending has prevented Trimedyne from getting into the black numbers, company officials said. Revenues from European sales of the Laserprobe will be used for research spending aimed at winning FDA approval of the device for use in the heart, Henson said.