Back

Business Description We are a biopharmaceutical company developing and commercializing therapies for vascular disorders. Our research and development efforts are focused on therapies for stroke and other vascular disorders, using our proprietary microbubble technology to treat vascular occlusions, or blood vessel blockages, as well as the resulting ischemia, which is tissue damage caused by a reduced supply of oxygen. Our commercialization efforts are currently focused on our product approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, for the treatment of acute massive pulmonary embolism, or blood clots in the lungs. Over eight million people in the U.S. are afflicted each year with complications related to blood clots. Approximately 700,000 adults in the U.S., or one every 45 seconds, are afflicted with, and 150,000 die as a result of, some form of stroke each year. Stroke is currently the third leading cause of death, and the leading cause of disability, in the United States. Approximately three million Americans are currently disabled from stroke. The American Stroke Association estimates that approximately $62.7 billion will be spent in the U.S. in 2007 for stroke-related medical costs and disability. The vast majority of strokes, approximately 87% according to the American Stroke Association, are ischemic strokes, meaning that they are caused by blood clots, while the remainder are the more deadly hemorrhagic strokes caused by bleeding in the brain. Currently available treatment options for ischemic stroke are subject to significant therapeutic limitations. For example, the most widely used treatment for ischemic stroke is a clot-dissolving, or thrombolytic, drug that can be administered only during a narrow time window and poses a risk of bleeding, resulting in 6% or less of ischemic stroke patients receiving such treatment. To facilitate increased administration of stroke therapies, in 2005 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, responded to requests by the American Stroke Association and related groups for higher reimbursement amounts for ischemic stroke patients treated with a thrombolytic drug by approximately doubling the amount of reimbursement provided for such treatment to $11,578 per patient. In addition to the brain and the lungs, blood clots can block blood flow and cause damage to other tissues in the body such as the heart, in the case of coronary arterial disease, and the legs and other extremities, in the case of peripheral vascular disease. We believe our development and research stage products may address significant unmet medical needs not only for stroke but also for clot-induced damage in tissues other than the brain. --- We were organized as an Arizona limited liability company on October 7, 1999, which was our date of inception for accounting purposes. We were subsequently converted to an Arizona corporation on January 12, 2000, and then reincorporated as a Delaware corporation on June 23, 2000. Our principal executive offices are located at 1635 E. 18th St., Tucson, Arizona 85719, and our telephone number at that location is (520) 770-1259. Our corporate website address is www.imarx.com.