Nycomed Amersham Imaging to Acquire Contrast Assets

In a move that will expand its line of ultrasound contrast agents, Nycomed Amersham Imaging (Buckinghamshire, UK) has agreed to buy the contrast agent Optison and other ultrasound contrast assets from Sonus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Bothell, WA, USA) for US$6.5 million. Optison is an ultrasound contrast agent designed to diagnose cardiac wall abnormalities and enhance resolution of anatomical structures.

Nycomed will also receive an interest in an ultrasound contrast patent license entered into with Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (London, UK) and Molecular Biosystems Inc. (MBI, San Deigo, CA, USA) in January 2001. This agreement gives MBI and Chugai nonexclusive rights under certain Sonus patents to manufacture and sell Optison in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Nycomed will now be entitled to receive a royalty on sales of Optison in these countries. The Nycomed-Sonus purchase agreement terminated a patent licensing agreement dating from 1999, which gave Nycomed an exclusive license to certain ultrasound contrast patents in the United States and Europe. After discontinuing its ultrasound contrast products, Sonus shifted its focus to the development of drug delivery and blood substitute products.

Nycomed intends to create a field force to develop and globally commercialize Optison and its own contrast agent, Sonazoid, an ultrasound contrast agent with cardiology and potential radiology applications, including heart and liver imaging.




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