GE HealthCare announces first acquisition as an independent company

GE HealthCare announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the French company IMACTIS, a developer of interventional computed tomography (CT) technology.

The deal marks the first acquisition of a new independent company. General Electric completed the spin-off of its medical division last week. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but GE HealthCare said it plans to fund the acquisition with cash.

The IMACTIS CT-Navigation system provides stereotaxic needle guidance, allowing pre-planning and ongoing control during minimally invasive procedures. It’s received FDA 510(k) approved and the system is approved under the European Union Medical Device Regulation.

While the technology is currently focused on CT imaging, GE plans to expand the system with its larger line of image-guided therapy (IGT).

“We are thrilled to take this step in strengthening our interventional leadership for patients and clients,” said Jan Makela, President and CEO of Imaging at GE HealthCare.

“IMACTIS CT-Navigation is designed to improve the workflow of interventional radiologists and hospitals by improving procedure accuracy, while also helping to reduce procedure time and radiation dose for patients and clinicians. It is an innovative navigation solution for image-guided percutaneous procedures that aims to improve patient outcomes by reducing the variability between simple and complex procedures and improving reproducibility.”

BIG TREND

After the company completed its spin-off, GE HealthCare announced that hired Dr. Taha Kass-Hout, formerly of Amazon Web Services, as the company’s first CTO.

Preliminary financial results for the fourth quarter and year were also disclosed. The new independent company reported fourth-quarter revenue of about $4.9 billion and annual revenue of about $18.3 billion. GE HealthCare said 2022 revenue growth was approximately 4% year-over-year.

At the annual JP Morgan Healthcare conference, CEO Peter Arduini said that one of the main areas of activity is the integration of artificial intelligence into their products. Mergers and acquisitions will also play “an important role for us over time.”

He noted that the IMACTIS deal is a good example of the company’s M&A strategy, as it will provide a set of features that will take GE HealthCare into “a somewhat new area while leveraging our core strengths.”