SuperSonic Imagine Announces Regulatory Clearance Of The Next-Generation Aixplorer Ultrasound System In Japan

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Kazuyoshi Hata, Healthcare Business Unit President, Konica Minolta and Jacques Souquet, Chief Innovation Officer, SuperSonic Imagine at JSUM

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, FRANCE--(Marketwired - May 28, 2015) - SuperSonic Imagine (EURONEXT PARIS: SSI) (Euronext: SSI, FR0010526814), a company that specializes in developing and commercializing ultrasound medical imaging equipment, today announced regulatory approval in Japan of their most recent Aixplorer ultrasound system. This product is being commercialized in Japan by industry leader Konica Minolta through an exclusive distribution agreement that was signed between the two companies in January 2015.

Japan is the third largest ultrasound market in the world. Konica Minolta demonstrated record sales in the healthcare market last quarter and the approval of Aixplorer now sets the stage for Konica Minolta to take a greater share of the Japanese ultrasound market. This approval also provides SuperSonic Imagine the opportunity to expand its footprint in this important market.

The newly approved Aixplorer is the only ultrasound system available that provides real time ShearWave™ Elastography (SWE™) to quantify tissue stiffness in a broad range of clinical applications such as breast, liver, prostate, thyroid, and musculoskeletal assessments. Tissue stiffness is used by physicians to help identify potentially malignant or other diseased tissue. In addition to SWE™ for quantifying tissue stiffness, SuperSonic Imagine’s Aixplorer also provides UltraFast™ Doppler that combines Color Flow Imaging and Pulsed Wave Doppler into one simple exam, providing physicians with exam results simultaneously and helping to increase patient throughput.

Konica Minolta successfully showcased this new product to the medical community at the recent Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japan Society of Ultrasonics in Medicine (JSUM; May 22 - 24, 2015) in Tokyo. Mr. Kazuyoshi Hata, Konica Minolta’s Healthcare Business Unit President, and Dr. Jacques Souquet, SuperSonic Imagine’s Chief Innovation Officer, demonstrated Aixplorer’s unique and innovative capabilities at a very well attended JSUM press conference.

“We are thrilled to have accomplished this regulatory approval, an important milestone that is a reflection of Konica Minolta’s and SuperSonic Imagine’s strong partnership,” said Dr. Jacques Souquet, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of SuperSonic Imagine. “This technology is positioned to revolutionize ultrasound imaging in Japan by providing physicians with detailed, real time information in a broad range of clinical applications.”

About SuperSonic Imagine
Founded in 2005 and based in Aix-en-Provence (France), SuperSonic Imagine is a company specializing in medical imaging. The company designs, develops and markets a revolutionary ultrasound system, Aixplorer®, with an UltraFast™ platform that can acquire images 200 times faster than conventional ultrasound systems. Aixplorer® is the only system that can image two types of waves: ultrasound waves ensure excellent image quality and shear waves, which allow physicians to visualize and analyze the stiffness of tissue in a real-time, reliable, reproducible and non-invasive manner. This innovation, ShearWave™ Elastography, significantly improves the detection and characterization of numerous pathologies in several applications including breast, thyroid, liver and prostate. SuperSonic Imagine has been granted regulatory clearances for the commercialization of Aixplorer® in the main global markets. Over the past years, SuperSonic Imagine enjoyed the backing of several prestigious investors, among which are Auriga Partners, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, Bpifrance, Omnes Capital and NBGI.

For more information about SuperSonic Imagine, please go to www.supersonicimagine.com