GE Healthcare to commercialize Rapiscan® outside the US, Canada & Mexico for increased access to heart exams

GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences business announced today that it has acquired Rapidscan Pharma Solutions Inc., which has the exclusive rights to produce and sell the pharmacological stress agent Rapiscan® (regadenoson) in territories outside the USA, Canada and Mexico. GE Healthcare’s strong industry presence and existing customer and supply chain network will help bring improved access to Rapiscan, offering an alternative screening method for patients who are unable to undergo traditional cardiac stress imaging procedures.

Rapiscan® is a European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved selective coronary vasodilator, used as a pharmacological stress agent for radionuclide myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) in adult patients. It is used in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD), the most common type of cardiovascular disease, accounting for over 680,000 deaths in Europe alone[1] .

While MPIs are most commonly performed after a patient has exercised, some patients at risk of CAD cannot exercise due to various conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Rapiscan reduces the risks[2] of MPI tests for these patients by stimulating a patient’s heart to bring on the effects of exercise.

Emmanuel Ligner, General Manager of Core Imaging for GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences business, said: “Rapiscan is a perfect fit for our current cardiac imaging agent portfolio, as it enables access to a critical diagnostic test to a large, under-served population of patients at risk of coronary artery disease. As Rapiscan is a market leader in Germany and Austria[3] but largely unavailable in many other regions, we will use GE Healthcare’s industry scale to drive improved access to this diagnostic tool for patients worldwide.”

GE Healthcare already distributes Rapiscan in the UK and Germany and will maintain existing supplier and distributor networks created by Rapidscan Pharma Solutions to expand its global reach. Its commercial rights will complement Astellas’ commercial distribution of regadenoson in the US, Canada, and Mexico.