LONDON, March 3, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Amersham Health, the global leader in medical diagnostic imaging and a business of Amersham plc (LSE:AHM) (NYSE:AHM) (Oslo:AHM) today announced that Finland's world-leading PET (Positron-Emission Tomography) centre in Turku has joined Imanet(TM), its network of imaging research centres.
A newly formed, wholly-owned Amersham company, Turku Research Imaging Solutions Oy (TRIS), in partnership with Turku PET Centre, will provide state-of-the-art imaging technology to the pharmaceutical industry to enhance early drug development. TRIS adds significantly to the existing range of services provided by Imanet(TM) centres in Uppsala, Sweden (URIS) and Hammersmith, London (IRSL).
Imanet(TM) was established by Amersham Health to create and use innovative imaging to facilitate and accelerate drug discovery and development, and to create new diagnostic intellectual property to enable physicians, to more accurately predict and diagnose disease and to tailor treatment accordingly. Amersham Health expects to add further centres to Imanet(TM) to expand its capabilities and increase capacity as the business grows.
"By adding TRIS to the Imanet(TM) network, Amersham Health can provide the drug industry with an unsurpassed resource to support their imaging needs in clinical development," said Dr Peter Loescher, President, Amersham Health. "Furthermore, through major research collaborations with companies like Pfizer, Amersham Health believes that Imanet(TM) will identify new molecules to provide the diagnostics of the future."
"The vision shown by our owners, Turku University Central Hospital, the University of Turku and Abo Akademi University, in building a 'state-of-the-art' facility, has given Turku PET Centre an international reputation in imaging research," said Prof Juhani Knuuti, Director of Turku PET Centre. "Now this vision has been reinforced by the Amersham investment through Imanet with the formation of TRIS in partnership with Turku PET Centre. This partnership will enable TPC to invest in new technology and, together with TRIS and other Imanet Centres, develop the imaging diagnostics of the future that will facilitate new drug development, enable a better understanding of disease and enhance accurate diagnosis to the benefit of patients world-wide."
Turku PET Centre was established in the 1970's and acquired status as a Finnish National Research Institute in 1996. The core activities of Turku PET Centre comprise the use of PET imaging in medical research. While the major proportion of the basic research activity is focused on cellular energy metabolism and neurotransmission, Turku PET Centre has collaborated extensively with the pharmaceutical industry in development projects in a wide variety of therapeutic areas (e.g. cardiology, neurology, psychiatry, oncology, anaesthesiology). Additionally, Turku PET Centre has an established international reputation in evaluation and development of new imaging technology.
Editor's Notes:
Amersham Health and Imanet(TM)
Imanet(TM) harnesses the power of world-leading centres and of two rapidly growing imaging technologies, Positron-Emission Tomography (PET), and Amersham Health's unique Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)-based Spin Signal(TM). Imaging Research Solutions (IRSL) is a joint venture owned 75 per cent by Amersham and 25 per cent by the U.K. Medical Research Council. Uppsala Research Imaging Solutions (URIS) is a joint venture 75% owned by Amersham and 25% owned by Uppsala University Holdings. Both centres are world leaders in PET research. (www.Imanet.com)
Through Imanet(TM), Amersham Health will continue to form collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies at an early stage in the product development cycle, such as the collaboration announced with Pfizer in January 2002. Imanet(TM) will offer its partners the potential for increased efficiency and precision in the target molecule selection process as well as throughout pre-clinical and clinical development, which in turn could lead to faster and lower-cost drug development. In addition, Amersham Health expects these partnerships to lead to the co-development of specifically paired diagnostic and therapeutic products and the generation of associated intellectual property for Amersham Health.
Imanet(TM) is a business unit within Amersham Health's Research & Development function and is led by Dr. Stephen Peake (Vice President, Imanet(TM)). Head of Amersham Health's R&D is Dr. Bill Clarke, EVP Research & Development.
Amersham Health and PET
PET is a nuclear medicine imaging technique that provides computerised axial images through a patient's body, providing functional information. PET is a rapidly growing imaging technology unequalled by other imaging methods in its ability to provide diagnostic information at the molecular level. The pharmaceutical industry is increasingly using PET to improve the speed and accuracy of evaluating the performance of new molecules in man, shortening times to bring new products to market and reducing risks in costly development programs.
In November 2001, Amersham Health announced a research collaboration with GE Medical Systems to accelerate the development of new PET based molecular imaging technologies and systems for routine diagnosis. Collaborations with pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer will provide the research flow of new products.
Amersham Health and Spin Signal(TM) A technology relating to Spin Signal(TM) allows for the first time, high-resolution, high speed imaging of gases using MRI. Small changes in lung morphology and function can be measured very precisely and this new technology could significantly enhance the ability to track diseases of the lungs, and potentially improve diagnosis of diseases of the brain, colon and other organs.
This is made possible by a laser optical pumping technique that gives nuclear spin alignments in the inert gases 3He and 129Xe that are 100,000 greater than is normally achieved in a 1.5T magnet, making it possible to image these gases with millimeter and millisecond resolution where previously it had never been possible to image gases with MRI.
About Amersham Health
Amersham Health is the leading global pharmaceutical provider of diagnostic and predictive imaging products and services. Amersham Health is dedicated to providing healthcare professionals with products that expand and improve their diagnostic capabilities and contribute to the treatment of disease. Amersham Health is committed to finding innovative diagnostic and therapeutic solutions with a focus on cardiology, neurology and cancer.
Medical diagnostic products marketed by Amersham Health are used to understand and treat major diseases using x-ray, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MRI), ultrasound and functional imaging. Contrast and radiopharmaceutical imaging products are, in general, injected into the bloodstream to enhance images taken of the structure or function of body organs and tissues. These enhanced diagnostic images enable physicians to more accurately detect, diagnose and treat diseases of the heart, lung, brain and functional abnormalities. In addition, Amersham Health markets products that are used to treat localized tumors such as prostate cancer, or to treat pain from cancer that has spread to bones.
About Amersham plc
Amersham plc is a world leader in medical diagnostics and in life sciences. Headquartered in the U.K., the company had annual sales of 1.62 billion pounds in 2002 and has around 10,200 employees worldwide. Its strategy is to build its position as a leading provider of products and technologies enabling disease to be better understood, diagnosed earlier and treated more effectively. Amersham -- bringing vision to medical discovery
For additional information, visit the Amersham Health Website at www.amershamhealth.com or the Amersham plc web site at www.amersham.com.