The Collapse of ViewRay

ASTRO, the world’s premier radiation oncology conference, was held in San Diego, California last week.  One the second day of the conference, Paul Ziegler, the CEO of ViewRay, sent out a communication letting everyone know that all hopes to keep ViewRay alive had vanished.  Effective October 25, 2023 all operations would cease, and customers that had purchased the $6 million MRI/Linear Accelerator, and often spent millions more to build the room/vault to house it, would no longer be able to use or support it, much less treat cancer patients with it.

The announcement sent ripples through the conference and generated impromptu meetings with many of the exhibitors.  Who, if anyone, can step up to help sustain these medical systems with parts, labor, and support?  ViewRay had entered bankruptcy months before, but most thought that a bidder would come in to take over the organization, once the debt was wiped away. But even bankruptcy was not enough to save the company.  Now the question is what will happen to the remaining assets.

ViewRay systems offered a breakthrough, innovative technology that allowed clinicians to see and adjust for the treatment of tumors using amazing MRI-quality imaging while using a linear accelerator.  Combining RF and magnetic fields to operate together in one system was considered breakthrough and had never been offered prior to the MRIdian.  ViewRay’s entry into this market was soon followed by Elekta with the Unity MR/Linac, and later by MagnetTx product, the Aurora-RT.  The future for MR/Linacs seemed secure.

ViewRay’s journey to become a staple in the world of radiation oncology struggled from the onset.  Early investors sought to exit by taking ViewRay public via an IPO, and when that failed, they conducted a reverse merger, a technique whereby a company goes public by assuming the stock symbol of an existing shell company.  The stock price immediately fell below the initial price, but eventually recovered.

Almost 10 years later, ViewRay had yet to break even.  It continued to amass debt.  The global pandemic did not help, nor did the long lags between orders and installations, often driven by the complexity of construction in building out the rooms.  The push towards hypofractionation did not materialize rapidly enough when CMS postponed the RO model, which would have benefited machines like the MRIdian which require only a few patient visits for a treatment course.

So the question is “what next?”  Will the assets be auctioned off to a company that can help to sustain the servicing of the existing installed base?  Or will this story end sadly, with dozens of customers around the world forced to write off this prized miracle of technology, hundreds of cancer patients no longer able to get this sophisticated treatment, and the employees, distributors, vendors, and contractors left in the cold?

And what will the future be for new entrants into the radiation oncology equipment space?  Will customers trust in new players and new technologies in light of the massive losses created by ViewRay?  Or will the industry continue to innovate and push to better technologies, despite the collapse of ViewRay? We will know more in the following weeks and months.