January 13, 2013

TechPrecision Signs Agreement for Proton Beam Radiotherapy Systems

TechPrecision Corporation

1/7/2013

Ranor and WCMC Divisions to Produce Product Assemblies for Proton Beam Cancer Treatment Equipment

Center Valley, PA – January 7, 2013 – TechPrecision Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: TPCS) (“TechPrecision” or “the Company”), an industry leading manufacturer providing engineering, precision large-scale machined, fabricated metal and electrical components for complete tested systems with customers in the alternative energy, cleantech, medical, nuclear, defense, aerospace and other commercial industries, today announced that it has signed a five-year agreement valued at more than $115 million to exclusively produce complete product assemblies for Proton Beam cancer treatment equipment in the U.S. and Asia.

“This agreement reflects the culmination of years of work with our customer to develop, perfect, and certify an efficient manufacturing process to produce a revolutionary system that provides a significant reduction in the size, cost and complexity of operating a proton therapy center,” said Mr. James Molinaro, CEO of TechPrecision Corporation. “This collaboration continues to be strategically beneficial to both organizations and now that the system has FDA clearance, pent-up demand indicates strong potential for this technology.”

The Proton Beam technology was recently cleared by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). This agreement covers exclusive production for units that will be used in the U.S. and Asia and supplied from the Company’s Ranor and WCMC divisions. Under the terms of the agreement, the Company expects to begin shipping initial assemblies during Q1 FY2014 and continuing through Q4 FY2018. Individual purchase orders will be issued to TechPrecision for specific unit shipments within the terms of this agreement. These purchase orders will determine timing of shipments and revenue to TechPrecision, as well as minimum quantities for delivery. The Company has already successfully shipped five of these assemblies under a prior agreement.

“This agreement will benefit both our Ranor and WCMC divisions, as we will produce units to meet the market demand in the United States and Asia,” continued Mr. Molinaro. “As this agreement goes forward, cancer patients are the big winners as it signals a new, more cost-effective and less-invasive procedure that is now an available option to the medical community. An additional benefit of this agreement is the further diversification of TechPrecision’s revenue. Clearly, we are no longer reliant on the alternative energy sector, and medical shipments will become an increasingly important contributor to our top- and bottom-line results as this agreement transitions to purchase orders.”

About TechPrecision Corporation

TechPrecision Corporation, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Ranor, Inc., and Wuxi Critical Mechanical Components Co., Ltd., globally manufactures large-scale, metal fabricated and machined precision components and equipment. These products are used in a variety of markets including: alternative energy (Solar and Wind), cleantech, medical, nuclear, defense, industrial, and aerospace to name a few. TechPrecision’s goal is to be an end-to-end global service provider to its customers by furnishing customized and integrated “turn-key” solutions for completed products requiring custom fabrication and machining, assembly, inspection and testing. To learn more about the Company, please visit the corporate website at http://www.techprecision.com. Information on the Company’s website or any other website does not constitute a part of this press release.
©

December 20, 2012

EMMA promises better cancer therapy

University of Oxford
Source: STFC

10 Jan 12

The EMMA particle accelerator. Photo: STFC

The first results from a new type of particle accelerator suggest how smaller, cheaper therapy machines, which could revolutionise cancer treatment, could be built.

The prototype accelerator EMMA (Electron Model for Many Applications), which was constructed at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Daresbury Laboratory, was designed by an international team including Oxford University scientists.

Current accelerators – used in medicine in conventional radiation therapy and X-ray machines as well as industry and fundamental scientific research – are limited by their size, complexity and cost.

EMMA’s technology is more compact, cost effective and operationally simpler, allowing the more widespread use of accelerators to tackle some of the most difficult problems facing society. The team report in Nature Physics the first experimental results from EMMA, confirming the proof of principle underlying its technology.

It is hoped that in the future this technology will allow hospitals to implement a newer and more effective form of beam therapy to help cure some of the most difficult cancers.

Professor Ken Peach of the John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science and the Oxford Martin School’s Particle Therapy Cancer Research Institute said: ‘This is a very exciting result – it is very rare these days to discover a new principle of particle acceleration, and this could lead to the development of novel or greatly improved applications of accelerators, for example in the treatment of some forms of cancer.’

EMMA’s ground-breaking concept is based on a ring of magnets which use their combined magnetic field simultaneously to steer and focus the electron beam around the machine. The strength of this magnetic field increases steeply as the beam spirals outwards while it is accelerated to 20 million electron volts around the ring. Due to the strength of the magnetic focussing, the displacement of the beam as it accelerates and spirals around the ring is much smaller than in any equivalent accelerator. As a result, EMMA’s ring of magnets is much more compact and it is easier to accelerate the beam.

The experience gained in the development and operation of EMMA's new technology will inform the design and eventual construction of a prototype proton/carbon ion accelerator for medical applications (PAMELA).

Engineered and constructed at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Daresbury Laboratory, EMMA was designed by an international consortium of scientists as part of the CONFORM project, which includes the Universities of Manchester, Oxford, Surrey, Imperial, Brunel, Liverpool and Huddersfield, STFC, the Cockcroft and John Adams Institutes, as well as a number of international partners which include the Brookhaven National Laboratory and Fermilab in the US, and TRIUMF in Canada.
©

December 14, 2012

ProTom Achieves Scheduled Milestone of Beam at Gantry Room Isocenter

FLOWER MOUND, Texas & FLINT, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Testing of a compact cancer-treatment technology from ProTom International, Inc. (“ProTom”) demonstrated last week that the system achieves its design specification: delivering high-energy protons to isocenter at a beam intensity sufficient for standard clinical practice. The ProTom technical team measured stable and reproducible performance on the Radiance 330® Proton Therapy System at the McLaren Proton Therapy Center (“MPTC”) in Flint, Michigan.

This is the first time that ProTom has tested its compact system’s gantry beam optics design. “Measuring high beam intensities at isocenter indicates well-functioning integration among various subsystems of the Radiance 330 necessary for clinical implementation,” said Vahagn Nazaryan, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Physics for ProTom. “We delivered beam through the gantry and nozzle in the first of three gantry treatment rooms as part of validation and verification of our technical design,” stated Dr. Nazaryan. “We are pleased that the system performed as designed and quickly achieved a dose rate sufficient for standard clinical practice.”

“We are excited by the results of successful beam transport testing through our first gantry treatment room: these results were independently reproduced by our clinical physics team,” said Sung Park, Ph.D., Chief Physicist for McLaren Cancer Institute.

Earlier in the summer, ProTom installed a new custom-designed radiofrequency quadrupole (RFQ) proton linac injector from AccSys Technology Inc. This upgrade has significantly improved accelerated proton beam intensities. The RFQ upgrade resulted in an increase in injection intensity yielding in excess of several times the number of protons per cycle accelerated in the synchrotron, with further tuning and optimization ongoing at McLaren.

“Both the ProTom and McLaren teams are to be commended for achieving this very significant result, which continues to validate that the system is performing as it was designed,” said ProTom CEO Stephen L. Spotts. “ProTom is focused on final validation and testing in order to secure all regulatory clearances necessary for clinical operation.” Spotts also noted, “It is my firm belief that our Radiance 330 system is not only the most advanced proton beam scanning system available but the most economical solution as well.“

About ProTom International, Inc.

ProTom International, Inc. is a medical device company committed to a new generation of financially viable proton radiotherapy centers that are easier to implement and equipped with advanced, compact technology. The Radiance 330 Proton therapy system makes community-based proton therapy truly accessible by reducing cost and technology barriers inherent with previous generations of equipment. To find out more about the future of proton therapy, visit us at www.protominternational.com.

About McLaren Health Care Corporation

Recognized by Verispan as one of the top Integrated Health Networks in the nation, McLaren Health Care includes more than 150 locations, 15,000 employees and over 10,000 network physicians. It includes nine wholly-owned regional hospitals: McLaren Regional Medical Center in Flint; Lapeer Regional Medical Center; Ingham Regional Medical Center and Ingham Regional Orthopedic Hospital in Lansing; Bay Regional Medical Center and Bay Special Care Hospital in Bay City; Mount Clemens Regional Medical Center in Mount Clemens; Central Michigan Community Hospital in Mt. Pleasant and POH Regional Medical Center in Pontiac. McLaren Homecare Group, an award-winning home health provider, and McLaren Health Plan, a top-rated commercial and Medicaid HMO are also a part of the system. To find out more about how we’re changing the future of health care, visit www.mclaren.org.

* The Radiance 330 Proton Therapy System has not been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for commercial distribution in the U.S. at this time.

Contact:
ProTom International
Stephen Sledge, 904-502-4032
ssledge@protominternational.com
or
McLaren Health Care
Kevin Tompkins, 810-342-1173
KevinTo@mclaren.org
©