GE HealthCare has entered an agreement to purchase the remaining 50% stake in Nihon Medi-Physics (NMP) from Sumitomo Chemical, aiming for complete ownership.
The agreement, which is set to close early next year pending regulatory approvals, will enable NMP to advance its expertise in creating in-licensed radiopharmaceuticals.
These are crucial for positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging techniques used to detect and diagnose diseases across various medical fields.
NMP's current product range includes several GE HealthCare radiopharmaceuticals essential for clinical imaging in cardiology, oncology, and neurology.
Notable products include DaTSCAN Injection for Parkinson's Disease and Dementia with Lewy Bodies; MYOVIEW for evaluating coronary artery disease, and VIZAMYL Injection for Alzheimer's disease pathways.
GE HealthCare has been a stakeholder in NMP since it acquired Amersham in 2004, which initially gave the company a 50% stake and three board positions.
Established in 1973 and based in Tokyo, NMP operates 13 manufacturing facilities and is actively involved in research and development. This includes the clinical and nonclinical development of radiotracers and theranostics research.
GE HealthCare pharmaceutical diagnostics (PDx) segment president and CEO Kevin O’Neill said: “As the third largest pharmaceutical market in the world, and amongst the leading countries by number of cyclotrons, Japan is on a path to becoming a leader in the $7bn molecular imaging global market and a centre of excellence for Asian markets.
“NMP will play a key role in that journey, including bringing its deep expertise and scale to global innovators looking to bring novel products to the Japanese market and beyond.
“This will strengthen our precision care strategy in Asia and our existing footprint in Japan, where our contrast media and medical devices are used every day to enable imaging procedures across the country.”
Solomon Partners Securities advised GE HealthCare on the transaction.
In September, GE received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for its PET radiopharmaceutical Flyrcado.
