Advanced Oncotherapy plc (LON: AVO) is the topic of conversation when Dr Martin Hall, Head of Life Sciences at Hardman & Co joins DirectorsTalk. Martin talks us through some interesting developments at the company, explains what has been happening at Daresbury, Cheshire, Reimbursement in the US, what exactly FLASH radiotherapy is and what impact this all has on the company’s valuation.
Advanced Oncotherapy’s goal is to deliver an affordable and novel proton beam therapy (PBT) system, based on state-of-the-art technology developed originally at the world-renowned CERN. In the past 18 months, the project has been de-risked through important technical milestones. AVO is working on the verification and validation phase, prior to CE marking and LIGHT being used on the first patients. Proposed changes to the US reimbursement framework are beneficial to PBT as a whole, and the trend towards hypo-fractionation of ultra-high doses in a single patient visit (FLASH), for which LIGHT is uniquely positioned to deliver.