Welcome to Plane Wave Volume 6, Issue 2. We hope you find these newsletters informative and interesting; we welcome your suggestions for future topics.
The Verasonics Commercial Technology Licensing Program: Enabling R&D Teams the Ability to Focus on New Application Development Rather than Ultrasound System Design
Please join our upcoming webinar on Thursday, July 21st at 8:00 am PST with Jon K. Daigle, President & CEO, to learn more about Verasonics’ Commercial Technology Licensing Program and the advantages it can provide to an R&D team seeking to innovate with ultrasound. Jon will provide a brief overview of the Program followed by a Q&A session.
To attend the webinar, please complete the form here.
In 2001, Verasonics began to develop a high-end ultrasound system using its proprietary and novel software-based beamforming architecture built to leverage ongoing increases in computing power and to enable new ultrasound innovations. The system design included innovative features such as real-time access to raw ultrasound data, ultra-fast frame rate plane wave imaging, and the capability to generate acoustic radiation force with ultrasound. In 2005, Verasonics granted the first commercial license of its technology to a startup company aspiring to commercialize a clinical diagnostic ultrasound product with shear wave elastography capability to better diagnose breast cancer. As a garage-based startup itself, Verasonics utilized the license fees to accelerate its own development efforts culminating in the 2007 launch of its inaugural V-1 System for ultrasound researchers.
Commercial Technology Licensing Program Overview
By working with Verasonics, commercial licensees can focus on new application development instead of ultrasound system design. This assists licensees to achieve substantial savings in development costs and an improved timeline to market. These benefits can be achieved by eliminating the need for large teams of specialized developers and minimizing the amount of custom hardware required for a new product.
Over the past 15 years, Verasonics has worked with a variety of commercial licensees ranging from university spinouts to Fortune 50 Companies developing innovative commercial ultrasound products including the following application areas:
- General radiology
- Renal denervation
- Non-invasive intracranial pressure monitoring
- Functional brain imaging
- Drug delivery
- Orthopedic surgery
- Breast imaging
Five licensee products have achieved independent regulatory clearance, and others are in clinical trials.
“Commercial technology licensing is core to Verasonics’ business,” said Ron Daigle, Verasonics’ Founder and Chief Innovation Officer. “Collaborating with our commercial licensees has been rewarding for our team over the years and is an opportunity for Verasonics to assist our partners to bring their ideas to market.”
The Way it Works
Commercial licensees gain access to Verasonics’ hardware designs and software, as well as a non-exclusive right to use its patents, trade secrets, and other confidential information for a specific permitted use or field of use. The Verasonics Commercial Technology Licensing Program provides commercial licensees with the freedom to modify the Vantage™ Research Ultrasound System hardware designs and software. This is unlike an OEM model, which often leaves partner companies captive and frustrated when the OEM company refuses to implement any modifications. In other words, each of Verasonics’ commercial licensees controls their own destiny.
Check out the Verasonics website for more information about our Commercial Technology Licensing Program: Commercial Licensing – Verasonics
Verasonics’ Commercial Technology Licensing Program has evolved over the years as the Company has matured. Early on, Verasonics generally coupled joint development along with its technology licenses and assisted its partners to develop their products. While the Company remains flexible and will evaluate mutually beneficial joint development opportunities, Verasonics primarily collaborates with commercial licensees that are capable of utilizing Verasonics technology through technology transfers and executing on their own development programs.