PALO ALTO, Calif. /PRNewswire/ -- Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) today announced it has entered into a series of agreements whereby JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. will assume $45 million of Varian's approximately $115 million loan commitment to fund the development, construction and initial operations of the Scripps Proton Therapy Center in San Diego. Under the agreements, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. purchased $38.1 million of Varian's outstanding loans and is obligated to fund up to an additional $6.9 million of the remaining loan commitment for the Scripps center.

"We believe this transaction signifies the growing confidence that the financial community has in Varian's ProBeam proton solution, which is now being used for patient treatments at Scripps," said Dow Wilson, CEO of Varian Medical Systems. "We anticipate that this will build support for financing other proton therapy centers."

Proton therapy makes it possible to treat certain types of cancer more precisely and with potentially fewer side effects than is possible with conventional radiation therapy. Patient treatments commenced successfully in February at the Scripps Proton Therapy Center, which was developed by Advanced Particle Therapy (APT). Varian's proton therapy technology is also in place at the Rinecker Proton Therapy Center in Munich, Germany and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland.
Varian has contracts to install ProBeam systems at seven additional centers, including at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital in Ohio, King Fahd Medical City in Saudi Arabia, PTC St. Petersburg in Russia, and National Taiwan University in Taipei, as well as three additional projects being developed by APT at the University of Maryland in Baltimore; Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia; and the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas.

Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncology practices. Varian is a premier supplier of tubes, digital detectors, and image processing software and workstations for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies high-energy X-ray devices for cargo screening and non-destructive testing. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 6,500 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America, Europe, and China and approximately 70 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com or follow us on Twitter.

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