AtCor adds to run of sales since March

AtCor Medical announced today that it has signed a US$1.77 million contract for the supply of its SphygmoCor blood pressure measurement system to a U.S customer.

The agreement brings to $US2.9 million the total value of deals signed by AtCor since the U.S Healthcare bill was passed in March, and according to the company is further proof that the reforms have been well received throughout the pharmaceutical trial sector.

AtCor said that today’s announcement concerns an existing large U.S pharmaceutical customer but that the company could not be named in accordance with confidentiality agreements. AtCor’s SphygmoCor system is designed to allow researchers and clinicians to measure central blood pressure non-invasively by visually identifying the effects of relfected blood pressure in the central aortic pressure wave, something which is not detectable with standard blood pressure monitoring.

Company CEO Duncan Ross said that there is a mounting body of evidence supporting the importance of measuring central blood pressure in assessing the efficacy of heart treatment as well as the safety of drugs. “It is equally important in patient care,” he added.

These claims were given weight today after the Administrative Law Judge for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rejected the findings of a Medicare health plan in Michigan that the SphygmoCor technology is experimental, ruling that the plan must provide coverage for use of the system.

An excerpt from his ruling read that “a growing body of scholarship in the field of medicine establishes that SphygmoCor is both safe and effective, is generally accepted by the medical community and is supported by sound medical evidence based on scientific data or research studies published in peer reviewed medical journals worldwide.”

The decision is seen as especially important for AtCor given that Michigan Medicare carrier is one of the largest in the U.S covering some 5 million Americans over the age of 65.

AtCor said that a number of private health plans in the U.S had previously reimbursed phsyicians for the use of SphygmoCor using an unlisted cardiovascular services code. The company said that it was on track to file for a CPT (common procedural terminology) code directly related to central blood pressure assessment by November this year.

AtCor’s shares rose 3.5 cents to close at $0.15 today.