Announcements

August 17, 2007 | UNH license agreement finalized Robert Dalton, Director of the Office for Research Partnerships and Commercialization of the University of New Hampshire, and Bill Hersman, Professor of Physics at UNH and CEO of Xemed LLC, signed an intellectual property agreement providing for exclusive licensing to Xemed of UNH patented technology and expertise related to diagnostic medical imaging. Xemed LLC is a New Hampshire based company founded by Prof. Hersman in 2004 to commercialize technology he invented for the production of magnetized gases for magnetic resonance imaging. In addition to refining the production technology, Xemed is pursuing clinical demonstrations and regulatory approval of its magnetized gas products MagniXene™ and MagniLium™ as safe and effective pulmonary functional imaging agents.

May 21, 2007 | Hersman elected to leadership of scientific group. The membership of the Hyperpolarized Media Magnetic Resonance Study Group, a subgroup of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, elected Prof. Bill Hersman to its executive committee. The HMMR Study Group consists of over one hundred scientists, clinicians, and members of the commercial sector involved in the development of hyperpolarized media MR contrast agents. Hersman will serve as Secretary this year, as Program Director next year, and as President the following year.

May 21, 2007 | New product lines announced Professor Bill Hersman, CEO of Xemed LLC, announced Xemed’s new product lines at the annual meeting of the Hyperpolarized Media Magnetic Resonance Study Group of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. XeBox-E10 will be a new high output polarizer with capability exceeding 10 liters per hour of hyperpolarized ¹²⁹Xe at polarizations over 50%. XeBox-E10 joins the MagniXene™ production family, presently supported by XeBox-B which produces over one liter per hour. Prof. Hersman also announced that Xemed would offer products and services for MagniLium™, Xemed’s hyperpolarized ³He imaging agent. HeliBox-Z100 is expected to produce 100 liters per day at polarizations over 65%. Xemed plans to accept deposits and begin assembly in fall 2007 for XeBox-E10, with HeliBox-Z100 production to follow six to nine months later. [updated 11-17-07]

January 9, 2007 | XeBox-B commercially available. Xemed is pleased to announce its new hyperpolarized xenon production system, XeBox-B (zee-box-bee), now commercially available to researchers and clinicians wishing to participate in clinical trials of the efficacy of MagniXene as a magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent for diagnosing lung disease. The XeBox-B system is built around a glass polarization column 160 centimeters in length with inner diameter 54 mm, and is energized by a 200 W diode laser. MagniXene production is automated by a control system that includes sensors for operational parameters and conditions and that provides automation of measurements, valves, and actuators. Polarization and production rate performance of this new polarizer exceed that of an earlier prototype version, published in Physical Review Letters. First deliveries are scheduled for December 2007, or nine months after receipt of order and deposit.

February 3, 2006 | US FDA allows next phase of human testing. University of New Hampshire scientists working with collaborators at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston completed Phase 1 clinical trials towards US Food and Drug Administration approval of MagniXene™ as a diagnostic imaging agent. Phase 1 trials seek to establish the safety of a new diagnostic agent and obtain preliminary indications of efficacy. The US FDA has approved the extension of our trials to include patients suffering from lung disease. This approval marks the beginning of our Phase 2 trials for studying the efficacy of MagniXene™ as a diagnostic agent for particular clinical indications.

December 29, 2005 | Xemed claims world leadership in magnetized xenon production. Xemed and University of New Hampshire scientists measured the output of their new magnetized xenon (MagniXene™) generator, eclipsing the published numbers of their prototype. Developed in collaboration with UNH under grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, this generator is approximately the size of a large refrigerator, however it is smaller than the prototype by almost a factor of ten. Xemed now offers not only the world’s best production output, exceeding the next best by a factor of twenty, but provides it in a package that can be integrated into a medical imaging suite.

May 16, 2005 | Xemed reports progress at ISMRM meeting. At the annual meeting of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine held in Miami Beach, Florida from May 7-13, 2005, Hersman and Distelbrink reported Xemed’s progress in developing a compact generator of magnetized xenon. Using funding provided the NIH’s National Center for Research Resources, Xemed scientists were able to utilize structured permeability techniques to reduce the size required by the magnetic fields inside the apparatus. Results presented in a poster at the meeting were received with great interest by the community.