Varian and Embolx to Comarket Sniper Microcatheter for Liver-Directed Therapy for Cancer

March 28, 2025—Varian, a Siemens Healthineers company, announced a United States comarketing and sales agreement with Embolx for the Sniper balloon occlusion microcatheter for liver-directed therapy. The agreement enables a full range of embolization and ablation solutions from a single vendor, providing options for advanced image-guided therapies for cancer patients, stated Varian.

Under the agreement, Varian and Embolx will collaborate to drive awareness, education, and clinical support of the Sniper microcatheter for clinicians across the United States. Varian will immediately begin selling this device alongside its portfolio of interventional solutions, stated the press release.

According to the company, the Sniper device expands on traditional embolization by utilizing a pressure-directed balloon system for occlusion in the peripheral vasculature. The technology alters blood flow-dynamics and controls local blood pressure to provide precise coverage for the delivery of embolic agents into target areas—effectively starving a tumor of blood supply while protecting surrounding healthy tissues.

Varian stated that the Sniper’s design improves the delivery of combination of treatment for liver-directed therapies, allowing embolization to be followed up with ablation techniques. The company noted that this combination of modalities has been shown in studies to be more effective at addressing intermediate-sized liver metastasis with positive effects on patient survival, citing “Combined Trans-Arterial Embolization and Ablation for the Treatment of Large (> 3 cm) Liver Metastases: Review of the Literature” by Eliodoro Faiella, MD, et al in Journal of Clinical Medicine (2022;115576).