ELEKTA RECEIVES ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR CORPORATE EXCELLENCE
Elekta in the U.S. has received the prestigious "Achievement Award 2004
for corporate excellence". The award is presented by the Swedish Trade
Council, the Consulate General of Sweden and the Swedish-American
Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco and is awarded to Swedish companies
with affiliations in the U.S. The award recognizes the excellent
contribution Elekta has made to Swedish-American trade in its marketing
and sales efforts.
The common element for all Achievement Award recipients is success. The
nominated companies were judged by the following criteria:
· Overall performance, competitiveness and capabilities
· Commercial success and development
· Achieved market position
Reasons for success in the US
Elekta entered the US market already in 1983 with an office in Atlanta,
where Elekta's US headquarter is located today. The US is an important
market for Elekta both in size, 40 percent of total revenues, and in
clinical and technology demand.
Elekta installed its first Leksell Gamma Knife® in the US at the
University of Pittsburgh in 1987, the same year as the first unit was
installed at the Karolinska Hospital in Sweden.
The introduction of Leksell Gamma Knife® in the US has been a great
success. Today more or less all neurosurgical departments at major
hospitals in the US perform neurosurgery using Leksell Gamma Knife®. It
has become the gold standard of care for non-invasive treatment of brain
disorders including functional diseases i.e. epilepsy and Parkinson's
disease.
By the end of December 2003, there were 193 Leksell Gamma Knife® units
installed world-wide of which 86 units are in the US.
Elekta is also a leading supplier in the U.S. and in the world of
systems for radiation therapy of cancer.
When Elekta acquired Philips radiotherapy division in 1997 the market
share in the US for systems for radiation of cancer was less than 10
percent. Today Elekta's market share is close to 25 percent. Elekta is
today the second largest supplier in the world of systems for radiation
treatment of cancer.
This is a result of a strong research and technical development program,
started when Elekta took over from Philips, which today has brought
Elekta to a position of technological leadership in the radiation
therapy market. As an example, Elekta is today the only company with
systems in clinical operation that are capable of image-guided radiation
therapy - integrating equipment for high resolution 3D x-ray images onto
a linear accelerator. The US is taking the lead in this development and
it is therefore important for Elekta to be a strong player in the US
marketplace.