Theralase technology used by pro athletes for pain management

June 2, 2014 — Theralase Technologies Inc., a key player in the life sciences industry, is breaking ground with its laser pain treatments for celebrity athletes. Baseball legend Roy Halladay and tennis star James Blake are just two of many celebrity sports athletes that have extensively used and vouch for Theralase’s TLC-1000 Cold Laser System, a system developed and optimized over the last 20 years.

Extensive clinical research proves that the TLC-1000 is able to reduce pain and accelerate tissue healing, dramatically improving the lives of both professional athletes and the everyday person experiencing muscle pain, joint pain or fatigue. The Theralase super pulsed laser system can penetrate up to 4? into tissue, to promote cellular regeneration at the source of the injury and is the only laser on the market known to activate all three cellular pathways.

Theralase has over 800 systems installed and in use in Canada, with an additional 400 more systems in the U.S. and internationally. To date, over 1 million patients have been successfully treated.

“I had to withdraw from the Rogers Masters in Montreal due to a severe abdominal muscle strain,” said James Blake, the no. 14-ranked professional tennis player in 2007. “For the next two weeks, I had two laser treatments per day with the Theralase 1000 cluster laser, which accelerated the tissue healing and reduced the pain … Theralase laser treatments were very helpful in accelerating my recovery time.”

In addition to healing injuries, many athletes use the technology to maintain musculoskeletal health. Roy Halladay, Cy Young Award Winner and former Major League Baseball all-star, used the technology in this way during his professional baseball career.

“I use the Theralase laser to keep my throwing arm healthy,” Halladay said. “It reduces fatigue and allows me to play at my peak, game after game.”

Innovative technology

Theralase’s laser technology works by providing the body with a high concentration of localized light energy that is converted by the body into cellular energy. In particular, photons are absorbed by photosensitive compounds, known as chromophores and cytochromes, primarily located in the mitochondria of cells. The resulting energy accelerates the production of Adenosine Tri-Phosphate (ATP) on a cellular level, the basic “food source” of cells.

Increased ATP production is clinically proven to accelerate cellular regeneration and tissue healing. Patients undergoing the treatment can benefit from drug-free, non-toxic, non-invasive, pain relief that promotes tissue regeneration and healing. The process is also cost-effective for practitioners and patients as it is higher in effectiveness relative to many drug-based treatment options and delivers results in a much shorter time horizon.

Strong scientific support

The science behind Theralase’s technology has been well documented in over 3,000 independent clinical research studies, while the company has also conducted a number of blinded, randomized clinical studies of its own proving the clinical effectiveness, safety, and versatility of cold laser-based treatments. Doctors like James Andrews, MD, an orthopedic surgeon famous for working with high-profile athletes, has also voiced his praise.

“Our rehab specialists have reported outstanding success when using the Theralase therapeutic laser system for rehabilitation of certain knee, shoulder, elbow, and other neuromuscular skeletal conditions,” Andrews said. “The Theralase laser is now a standard of care treatment methodology within our rehab clinic and is a great tool in helping our athletes return to competition.”

The testimonial from Andrews is significant given his extensive presence within the professional sports world. ESPN.com once stated that he was “the alpha doc at the center of a sports-medicine network that extends well beyond doctors … every athletic trainer, physical therapist, strength-and-conditioning coach in the land seems to have Andrews’ cell phone number.”

Potentially undervalued

Theralase’s unique technology has driven strong interest among investors and analysts. With a modest $17.7 million market capitalization, the company could see its valuation expand dramatically if it is successful in widely commercializing its cold laser therapeutic technology across the US market.

The company has an ambitious year planned: to target the $100 billion annual U.S. market for acute and chronic pain. To accomplish this, it plans to launch Territory Sales Managers in Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and Houston in 2014 and 2015, deploying an aggressive sales and marketing strategy to displace competitive technologies with its superior products and preferential revenue model for clients.

To further bolster this plan, Theralase is launching a next generation therapeutic laser in 4Q 2014 that is able to specifically target patient’s tissue to within a millimeter of depth delivering an even higher efficacy and repeatability than its current technology. This technology has an easy to use graphical user interface that will be as simple to operate as any smart phone on the market today.

With the launch of this new technology, Theralase is migrating the business from a one-time capital equipment purchase model, where they sell the systems for a fixed cost in the $16,000 range, to a recurring revenue model, where they will lease the systems to health care clinics, hospitals, and practitioners for $500 per month, in perpetuity. With each unit generating on average, $10,000 a month for its customers, the new model is expected to substantially increase its market share for such devices worldwide.

The company is targeting $6.6 million in annual revenue from the first 400 such devices placed, in late 2014 and early 2015.

The company is also working on the next generation cancer treatment. The company uses specially designed small molecules, known as Photo Dynamic Compounds (PDCs) that have shown an affinity to cancer cells, localizing in the nucleus of the cell, and when light activated destroy the nucleus of the cell killing the cancer cell without affecting healthy tissue. This technology has none of the side effects of surgery, chemotherapy or radiation and all of the benefits providing up to a 100% cancer kill. This research is still in the preclinical stage, but the Company is quickly advancing on human clinical trials in bladder cancer, the Company’s lead cancer indication, in early 2015.

In mid-May, Zacks Small Cap Research initiated coverage of the company with an Outperform rating and $1.00 price target. With shares of the stock trading at just $0.25, as of May 27, 2014, the price target represents a significant 300 percent premium. The analyst estimates that revenues will grow to reach about $9.5 million by 2016 with earnings per share reaching $0.03 over the same timeframe.

Source: Upticknewswire.com