"Imaging agents will drive early detection of disease and drug development"

Kevin O'Neil, General Manager, Core Imaging, Life Sciences, GE Healthcare

"Imaging agents that had simply helped identify diseases in the past will play a pivotal role in broader patient care, including early detection of disease and drug development."

Kevin O'Neil, General Manager of GE Healthcare Life Sciences’ Core Imaging business, made the remark during a interview with The Korea Economic Daily, saying that “Imaging agents can be used in the research and development of precision medicine because they help analyze the response and effects of patients in the treatment process after drug administration."

The imaging agent is a compound used to increase visibility of certain tissues or blood vessels in X-ray, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

O'Neil said, "In the past, it was the start to use the treatment to find out where cancer is located in a body through imaging, but it is now even possible to predict the likelihood of disease development before the disease incidence backed by accumulated big data”, adding “We will be able to save billions of dollars in clinical trial expenditures and shorten the time required for drug development through imaging agents.”

O'Neil paid a visit to Korea on the upcoming launch of the company’s new magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent 'Clariscan' in July. South Korea will be the third country to launch the product in the world, following the launch in Europe last March and in India.

"Even with its relatively smaller market size, Korea is considered as an important market since it is very active in introducing advanced technologies while its medical technology is at a high level. GE Healthcare launched Sonazoid, an ultrasound imaging agent for diagnosis of liver cancer, in Korea for the first time in the world in 2012, and we also launched Vizamyl, a radiopharmaceutical to detect Alzheimer's dementia, in Korea for the first time in Asia in 2016. This clearly shows how high the status of Korea is,” O'Neil said.

GE Healthcare's CI division provides imaging agents and molecular imaging solutions that offer effective imaging and treatment methods to clinicians. Last year, the division posted USD 2 billion in global sales, accounting for about half of GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences revenue (USD 4.6 billion). GE contrast media products are used in more than 90 million procedures per year, equivalent to injection in three patients per second.

"The global imaging agent market is growing at a speedy 5 percent annual pace. Our CI business was a small division unnoticed a decade ago, but it has now been transformed into one of the major business units working with 4,200 employees," he said.

Reporter, Ye-jin JUN ace@hankyung.com