GE Healthcare ($GE) snatched up U-Systems this week, less than two months after the California company won a hard-fought PMA approval for its breast cancer ultrasound imaging system.
As is typical with many of these transactions, neither side is disclosing financial terms. But the healthcare arm of the international consumer conglomerate GE gains something major here--a much larger presence in the breast cancer imaging space. U-Systems gained FDA premarket approval less than two months ago for its somo•v Automated Breast Ultrasound system, which is designed to help identify smaller tumors specifically in women with dense breast tissue.
The product is designed for use along with mammography for women who don't have visible breast cancer tissue and have dense breast tissue--a condition usually hard to work through for accurate breast cancer detection. Approval represented a big enough advance in care that the FDA itself formally announced its decision, which typically takes place only with major technology. U-Systems itself raised $6.5 million in new funding just this past May, in part to help complete its PMA submission and fine-tune its signature product.
U-Systems has created an imaging system that targets an important niche. Women with dense tissue in ¾ of their breast or higher have a much greater risk of breast cancer than women who have little or no dense tissue, according to a New England Journal of Medicine study cited in the GE announcement.
GE says it will add the system to its existing roster of digital mammography and breast MR products.
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