• Net sales for the period amounted to SEK 16.1 M (15.5)
• Profit after tax was SEK 5.2 M (5.3)
• Earnings per share after tax amounted to SEK 0.46 (0.47)
• Operating profit amounted to SEK 7.1 M (7.3)
• Cash flow from operating activities was SEK 13.4 M (12.2)
Johan Löf, President and CEO of RaySearch Laboratories AB, comments on the first three months of the year as follows:
“It is highly pleasing that today we can announce that RaySearch Laboratories and Varian Medical Systems have signed a long-term collaboration agreement to develop advanced radiotherapy treatment planning of cancer. Varian Medical Systems is the leading supplier of equipment for radiation treatment and we now gain access to the company’s large customer installed base.
The collaboration involves developing a number of products, the first of which is expected to be available on the market next year. The products will be integrated into Varian’s Eclipse™ treatment planning system.
The Varian-RaySearch collaboration agreement involves radiobiological evaluation and radiobiological optimization of treatment plans for standard photon/electron radiotherapy, intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and proton therapy, as well as optimization of conventional 3-D CRT. The agreement is among the most important events in RaySearch’s history. Reaching an agreement with such a large and significant player as Varian is a definitive confirmation that our technology platform is state-of-the-art.
Net sales in the first quarter rose 4 percent compared with the year-earlier period and amounted to SEK 16.1 M. At unchanged exchange rates, the sales increase would have been 13 percent. We can note that the number of licenses since the start of RaySearch surpassed 3,000. Support revenues increased during the first quarter by 35 percent to SEK 4.0 M. The company has a strong financial position, with highly favorable liquidity and a solid cash flow.
We are facing a sharp expansion of operations within a number of new application areas, such as adaptive radiotherapy and radiation treatment with protons. Accordingly, a comprehensive recruiting effort was initiated in the first quarter. A total of approximately 20 persons will be employed and we have received more than 450 applications. Primarily, this involves strengthening within research and development with more system developers, mathematicians and radiation physicists. Through this recruitment, we will be increasing the number of employees by 60-70 percent.
We are looking forward to some important launches during the year. The agreement with Philips in adaptive radiation therapy aims to develop a suite of three products. The plan is for the first product, p-RayAdaptive/IGRT to reach the market during the second half of 2007. In the cooperation regarding quality assurance within IMRT between RaySearch and Scanditronix-Wellhöfer, three new products will also be developed. The first two, i-RayDose and i-RayMonitor, are under development and will be launched in the second half of 2007. We are also conducting significant development work within proton and carbon-ion therapy, a large future area in radiation therapy. This work will result in an innovative treatment planning system for treatment with protons and carbon ions.
Philips and Nucletron, two large players on the market, are already our partners. Now with the addition of Varian, we have collaboration agreements with three of the four companies that together account for the absolute largest share of sales globally in treatment planning systems. Our product portfolio is expanding continually and the collaboration with Varian is highly welcome to further strengthen RaySearch’s position.”
Stockholm, May 8, 2007
RaySearch Laboratories AB
Johan Löf, President and CEO
For further information, contact:
Johan Löf, President and CEO
RaySearch Laboratories AB
Telephone: +46 (0)8-545 061 30
johan.lof@raysearchlabs.com
Financial Reports
