GE opens development centre in India to study medical diagnostic
products
13 July 2006 Bangalore, India. GE Healthcare, (part of GE — NYSE:GE)
today announced the opening of its first Integrated Development Centre (IDC)
at Manipal Hospital in Bangalore, India. The centre is part of the strategic
development of GE's Global Clinical Studies Program. Under the terms of
the collaboration, physicians at Manipal Hospital will act as study
investigators and provide clinical and imaging services and administration
in the hospital. Manipal Hospital will conduct clinical research trials
using a wide range of GE Healthcare's diagnostic imaging technologies
including its LightSpeed VCT, Discovery STe 16 slice PET/CT scanner, Dual
Head Gamma Camera with CT (SPECT/CT) and TwinSpeed High Definition Magnetic
Resonance (HDMR) imaging system. The IDC in Bangalore will play a crucial
role in GE Healthcare's ongoing global clinical research program and support
its vision of "Early Health" by helping to bring new diagnostic imaging
agents to market and working to address serious unmet medical needs in
oncology, neurology and cardiology. The IDC in Bangalore is expected to
conduct around 1,000 scans annually as part of the planned clinical trials
and will be part of a series of global multi-country clinical studies in the
United States, the European Union and several other countries. Over time, GE
Healthcare will create more IDCs in key strategic locations globally.
Information obtained from Bangalore will be combined with data from other
centres globally and contribute towards the development of new contrast and
molecular imaging agents or new indications for existing agents. The first
studies will focus on Visipaque (iodixanol) an isosmolar contrast agent that
was launched globally by GE Healthcare in 1996. Visipaque has been used in
millions of X-ray and computer tomography procedures to date. Contrast
agents are used during medical diagnostic procedures to provide image
enhancement of tissues and organs. Future studies will be extended to cover
the company's entire diagnostic imaging portfolio. The collaboration
between GE Healthcare and Manipal Hospital will benefit local patients in a
number of ways. In particular, the investment in imaging infrastructure will
increase access to the most advanced medical diagnostic technology
available. Dan Peters, President and CEO of Medical Diagnostics at GE
Healthcare said, "The clinical studies in India are a key part of our global
strategy. We want to use our unique abilities in biology and engineering to
develop novel imaging agents that will provide groundbreaking molecular
diagnostic options for physicians and their patients. The research efforts
of GE Healthcare's Medical Diagnostics R&D team are currently focused on
functional and molecular imaging agents that help doctors evaluate the
physiology of disease and make treatment decisions earlier with confidence."
Mr. V. Raja, President, GE Healthcare India, said: "We are extremely pleased
to collaborate with Manipal Hospital which is one of India's most respected
institutions. GE Healthcare and Manipal Hospital are both driven by a desire
to change the future of healthcare by helping patients experience "Early
Health", which focuses on early diagnosis rather than late disease.
Together, we will be able to create one of the most advanced Integrated
Development Centers in the world. We will also be tapping into the resources
of the GE Global Research Centre here in Bangalore, as well the expertise of
our global Medical Diagnostics team." To top
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