 |
 |
| Back Issues |
|
|
|
|
ACS Members can sign up to receive C&EN e-mail newsletter.  |
|
|
 Join ACS |
|
|||||||||
|
BUSINESS
Companies say the merger could lead to a new era in diagnostic medicine
GE Medical System's capabilities in medical imaging devices and information technology are well known. Its main target in the purchase is Amersham Health, which was responsible for 59% of Amersham's $2.4 billion in sales last year. Amersham Health makes imaging agents for procedures such as computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and radiopharmaceutical imaging. The balance of Amersham's sales comes from Amersham Biosciences, which makes instruments, reagents, and software used in drug discovery and has a proteins separations business that serves the biopharmaceutical industry. GE CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt says that, more than any other company, Amersham fits with GE's ambitions of leadership in personalized medicine and molecular imaging. "The last 25 years of health care has been about making surgery more effective," he told analysts. "The next 25 years is going to be about prevention; it's going to be about ways that imaging and diagnostics can improve the therapy and treatment process." Amersham Biosciences will bring GE into reagents and other supplies used by life sciences companies. Immelt says he sees the biosciences division as a high-growth business that the company will retain and even augment. For Amersham, merging with GE brings the scale and engineering needed to get personalized medicine off the ground, according to CEO William Castell. He will be made vice chairman of GE's board and will lead GE Healthcare Technologies when the deal reaches completion, expected during the first half of next year. "When you get a little older and you need imaging, I'm sure you'll be pleased with the outcome," he told the analysts. |
|||||||||
|
Chemical & Engineering News |
|||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
