Exclusive ALPHARETTA, GA—Isotron has received $500,000 of a broader $1 million raise and will hunt for up to $10 million this year to help further development of its patented method for whacking tumors with neutron radiation, says CEO and President Robert Ebling.
Founded in 1998, the company has raised a total of $4.5 million in several rounds from a large pool of 110 private placement investors.
Working with Georgia Tech researcher and professor Dr.Chris Wang and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, Isotron has developed a miniaturized neutron radiation source that can be injected directly into a tumor. “Wang is the visionary for this technology,” says Ebling.
Placing a sealed radioactive source inside or next to an area needing treatment is called brachytherapy, from the Greek word for short, referring to short distance therapy.
Inside job
“Picture a hypodermic needle inserted into the tumor. A machine with elaborate positioning software moves the radioactive source into the tumor and then withdraws it,” explains Ebling. The capsule containing the radioactive isotope remains in the tumor a short time, often only five to ten minutes.
The powerful neutron and gamma rays emitted by the source, Californium-252, can destroy a tumor from the inside with minimal damage to healthy cells, a major problem with beamed radiation therapy. Neutron radiation does not travel far, so placing it inside the tumor is a decided advantage in killing cancer cells and not healthy ones.
Ebling says the neutron emitting isotope has “superior qualities over X-ray and other conventional radiation treatments,” which have difficulty with certain cancer cells that lack oxygen. The neutron radiation emitted by Californium 252 does not need oxygen to kill tumors.
Talking with the FDA
The company is in discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration now on potential approval of the treatment, which Ebling says is technically a medical device. If the FDA agrees, it would shorten the approval process compared with what it could require.
Approval as a medical device is not assured, he says.
Ebling notes that years of research on the use of Californium 252 has already been conducted, primarily by a Japanese American researcher, Dr. Y. Maruyama, who did not have access to Isotron’s miniaturization process that allows it to be placed in—rather than near—a tumor.
Ebling is the company’s only fulltime employee at present, although it works with a number of researchers and others. If it manages to land that large $10 million institutional refinancing later this year, it will hire quite a few people, some in Atlanta, some in Boston, some previous employees who are currently in California, Ebling says.
Ebling himself has a background in finance, and actually discussed becoming Isotron’s chief financial officer at one point. Now in his late 50s, he spent the last decade with United States Surgical Corp., a medical device manufacturer. Prior to that he worked for PriceWaterhouseCoopers and large banks.
His financial expertise helped Isotron bring in additional money after it literally ran out of funds under a previous CEO.
“I had basically retired a few years ago,” he says. “I’m not in this for the money. This could truly help people,” he says.
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