Polarean Imaging PLC (AIM:POLX, OTC:PLLWF) on Monday showed evidence of a new strand of its sales and marketing strategy under its refreshed management team.
Following the appointment of CEO Christopher von Jako in 2023, last year the company hired a new chief medical advisor and a new head of sales and marketing, after completing a $12.6 million financing round to accelerate the commercialization of its XENOVIEW medical imaging technology.
Taking the role of vice president sales, Alan Huang joined from Philips Healthcare, where he served for 12 years, most lately leading the MRI business unit in North America, where the past year has seen collaboration between the two companies.
Historically in Polarean’s core US market, where it has FDA approval since 2022 and its own Medicare reimbursement code, the focus has been on selling its XENOVIEW polariser to research hospitals and then upgrading research polarizers to clinical polarizers.
After he joined, Huang told Proactive: “we are planning to form partnerships with organizations to expand our technology outside the US”.
Today’s announcement was the first outward sign of that strategy coming into play as Polarean signed its first distribution agreement for its Xenon MRI platform.
This tie-up is with a specialist medical distributor in Taiwan, Sumtage Enterprise Co, where the London and North Carolina company said the pair will collaborate to expand Polarean's international reach and pave the way for the innovative Xenon MRI platform to be sold and used in Taiwan.
Sumtage, which has been introducing advanced medical equipment from overseas into its local market for the past 30 years, are “the ideal partner” to help the company expand access to the MRI platform into this new market, said von Jako.
He added that Huang and the company’s own sales team “remains focused on expanding the number of user sites within the United States”, but it was a first commercial entry into the Asia-Pacific region and via a high-quality distribution partner.
“We will work with Sumtage to achieve regulatory approval for our platform in Taiwan ahead of commercial launch, and look forward to further updating the market in due course,” he said.
Analysts at Stifel highlighted the “widening horizons” that the deal confirmed.
“While a potential commercial roll-out in Taiwan seems unlikely until 2H26, the agreement shows wider international interest in Polarean's technology,” the analysts said in a note to clients.
“That said, the key focus for the business and investors remains on gaining greater commercial traction in the US market, and we therefore look forward to a FY24 trading update in the coming weeks.”
The company has previously guided to full-year revenues of $2.5-3 million, rising to $5-6 million revenues for the 2025 financial year.
As regards the core strategy in the US, Huang said last year that his team is working with a three-pronged strategy.
The first of which is leveraging 20-plus existing customers, mostly to drive utilization of technology in both clinical and research settings to increase revenue, as well as upgrading research polarizers to clinical polarizers, which allows them to perform clinical scans, with recently seen successes at Kansas University Medical Center and the University of Virginia Health System, with the upgrade process underway at institutions like Duke University and the University of Iowa.
Second, to drive new system sales, Huang said he was developing a “targeted customer segmentation strategy that focuses on high-potential opportunities to quickly generate revenue”, targeting sites that see high patient volumes in primary clinical areas.
He estimated there are about 100 healthcare systems where Polarean’s technology could have a significant impact, helping us grow the customer base.
The third prong is business development with the three major MRI companies to boost the company’s visibility within radiology departments, with a strategic partnership with Philips already in place and plans to further strengthen existing relationships with General Electric and Siemens.