TibaRay aims to cure cancer in a flash.
It’s a medical-technology (medtech) company out to tackle one of the biggest challenges in healthcare: how to treat cancer faster and more effectively, without damaging healthy tissue.
This company is led by CEO Thinh Tran, former CEO of Sigma Designs, a semiconductor business that he grew from a startup to a public company with a roughly $2 billion market cap. Co-Founder Sami Tantawi is a former Stanford professor led world-class radiofrequency (RF) accelerator research.
Most cancer patients who undergo radiation therapy receive treatment over multiple sessions. And each session can last several minutes. In fact, the current fastest treatment option in the world is more than three minutes.
This may not seem like much time. But even over the course of a few minutes, cancerous tumors can shift, making it harder to target cancer cells. This is when otherwise healthy tissue can be accidentally damaged.
TibaRay is developing a new approach called Flash radiotherapy. This approach delivers treatment 400x faster than current options — less than half a second — and, as a result, creates a forty-percent reduction in damage to healthy tissue.
To achieve this, TibaRay is building its own proprietary particle-accelerator technology, the kind that powers its ultra-fast treatment. Its flagship system, known as Phaser, is designed to deliver radiation with precision and speed.
The company’s platform is built around advanced linear accelerators, which generate high-energy beams used in radiation therapy. But unlike traditional machines, TibaRay’s delivers radiation at ultra-high speeds while improving targeting accuracy and reducing treatment times.
Cancer therapy is a $300 billion market, with radiotherapy accounting for nearly $10 billion of this figure. As many as twelve million patients worldwide require radiotherapy each year. It’s used in more than 60% of U.S. cancer treatments. But only about half actually receive it due to a lack of access.
To start, TibaRay is focusing on cancer care. But potential applications for its technology include cardiac arrhythmias, pulmonary emphysema, neurological conditions, and arthritis & inflammatory conditions. All told, this adds another twenty billion dollars’ worth of opportunities.
TibaRay generates revenue by selling or licensing its accelerator technology across multiple industries. These include medical imaging, security scanning, and industrial inspection. Longer-term, it aims to deploy its full radiotherapy systems to hospitals and cancer centers.
TibaRay has already made progress toward commercialization. More than $27 million has been invested in its development to date, including more than $14 million in non-dilutive federal grants.
The company has more than twenty patents issued or pending, and its technology has been integrated into a radiotherapy system developed by Leo Cancer Care, a medtech manufacturer. It’s also received an investment from global healthcare provider, IHH Healthcare.