LOS ANGELES and LITTLE CHALFONT, England, June 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- GE Healthcare Ltd. and ImaginAb, Inc. have executed a master research agreement around the development of new PET (Positron Emission Tomography) diagnostic imaging agents based on ImaginAb's antibody fragment technology. The agreement is launched with an initial exclusive collaboration around a novel cardiovascular target*.
"We are very pleased to have established this collaboration with GE and particularly delighted that our first project extends ImaginAb's reach into the rapidly growing market for new PET tracers to image high-risk cardiovascular disease," said Dr. Christian Behrenbruch, CEO of ImaginAb. "As a development partner, GE Healthcare brings tremendous and much-valued expertise in radiochemistry process development and clinical translation."
"With the growing importance of biologics-based therapeutics in treating cancer and inflammation and our evolving understanding that cancer and cardiovascular disease are modulated by fundamental immune processes, we view this collaboration with ImaginAb as timely," said Marivi Mendizabal, Head of Research, GE Healthcare, Medical Diagnostics. "Our vision is that technologies, such as the ImaginAb antibody fragment platform, will enable us to rapidly develop new targeted molecular diagnostics - not just for our own clinical portfolio, but as a 'companion' diagnostic offering to antibody/drug conjugate pipelines for our strategic biopharma partnerships."
About ImaginAb
Founded in 2007 by UCLA Faculty (Drs. Robert Reiter, Anna Wu and Christian Behrenbruch), ImaginAb, Inc. is a biotechnology company specializing in the development of engineered antibody fragments for diagnostic imaging and novel therapeutic applications. The company has a significant pipeline of clinical products in development oriented towards unmet needs in cancer and immunology. ImaginAb is also developing a range of pre-clinical (animal imaging) reagents for use with microPET, microSPECT and optical imaging systems, and partners on a selective basis with biopharmaceutical companies with an interest in developing companion imaging agents for therapeutic antibody products. For more information about ImaginAb, visit www.imaginab.com.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform and treat disease, so their patients can live their lives to the fullest.
GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases, and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention.
Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website atwww.gehealthcare.com.
*the products and services described in this press release have not attained regulatory approval for clinical use in USA or UK/EU.
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Anna Wu
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SOURCE ImaginAb, Inc.
