Philips gets FDA OK for Ingenuity system

Royal Philips Electronics ($PHG) has received 510(k) clearance for the Ingenuity TF PET/MR, the company's first commercially available whole body positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging system. The clearance comes as Philips tries to make strides in the healthcare scanner market, which includes rivals GE and Siemens, as Bloomberg notes.

In a release, Philips points to the economic value the Ingenuity system offers, as it is a sequential imaging system with a similar clinical workflow experience to PET/CT. In addition, it is designed so the patient table rotates between each modality, enabling the system to perform both standalone MR and hybrid PET/MR studies.

Mount Sinai and University Hospitals/Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland will house the first systems in the U.S., according to the release. The company has sold 13 systems worldwide thus far, including those sold to medical centers in Switzerland, Germany, Spain and South Korea.

Philips, which is looking to enter a growing market as it moves away from the struggling consumer electronics and lighting arenas, is hoping U.S. hospitals adopt the combined scanner, Bloomberg notes.

"This should give them some incremental sales in the U.S. and help the growth outlook in the business," said Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Martin Prozesky, as quoted by Bloomberg.

- get more from the Philips release
- check out the Bloomberg report

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