“WILD RIDE”: OPUS MEDICAL’S COO ON IMPROVING CANCER TREATMENT AS HIS STARTUP GOES GLOBAL

Harnessing technology more than a decade in the making, the medical minds behind Opus Medical are pursuing a global opportunity exceeding $800 million to improve treatment outcomes for breast cancer patients.

Co-founded by Dr Sean Pollock (COO) and University of Sydney Professor Paul Keall (Director), the Sydney-based medtech startup is in the business of developing innovative and cost-effective solutions to complex cancer treatment problems. Their first product to date, the Breathe Well medical device, is designed to guide breast cancer patients to maintain an exact breath hold position during radiation treatment of targeted tissue.

According to Dr Pollock, Breathe Well is a dual value proposition. On one hand, the device improves the accuracy and efficiency of radiation treatment, enabling cancer treatment centres and hospitals to treat more patients each day. Critically, it ensures a patient’s healthy tissue – specifically, their heart and lungs – is moved as far away from the harmful radiation beam as possible.

In conversation with Dynamic Business, Dr Pollock discussed how he and Professor Keall went about commercialising the university research underpinning Opus Medical, the size of their addressable market, overcoming the challenges of transitioning from academia into entrepreneurship, his ambitions for the medtech startup and more. Read more

James Harkness - Dynamic Business - 9 Feb 2018