March 09, 2021

Why Nanox.Arc has no chance for clearance

Nanox has a nice video on its front webpage titled "Understanding Nanox technology & vision"  It is extremely misleading, and, thus, extremely useful to regulators.  It proves that Nanox.Arc has no chance for FDA clearance, not this year and not ever.

How so?  Well, about 40 seconds into the video, the mesmerizing voice proclaims:

Years of dedicated development by Japanese and Israeli scientists have achieved a novel X-ray source and device that bring hope by being more affordable by orders of magnitude than the conventional X-ray technology used today.

Oops.  See, the FDA clearance pathway is only for a device that is substantially equivalent to a legally marketed device.  A novel device will be immediately rejected, as it fails the RTA checklist, and must go through either a De Novo classification request or a PMA approval submission.  Either one takes years.



Incidentally, according to the same segment in the video, the device below represents the X-ray technology used today:

Unfortunately, that is a sketch of an MRI device, which has nothing to do with X-ray technology - note the "chimney," which is actually part of liquid-helium cooling system (the superconducting electromagnets require very low temperature to operate).

Thanks to ThreadEnhancer @ AuntMinnie for the novel tip.

The video was published sometime in February or March, 2020, that is, after the supposed January 2020 submission for clearance of the single-source device.

Update:  The MRI device in the sketch is a stylized Siemens MAGNETOM.

Update (March 13, 2021):  The video, of course, is not the only place where Nanox explicitly describes Nanox.Arc as novel.

Update April 5, 2021:  Nanox got clearance for a Nanox.Cart (the ugly device).  Nanox.Arc (a multi-source one) still has no chance of clearance, unless Nanox admits that the device is not novel

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