Osprey Medical, based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, will be working with GE Healthcare to help its product portfolio reach a wider customer base. The two companies announced a strategic partnership that gives GE exclusive distribution rights of Osprey products in Europe, Russia, Turkey, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa.
The four-year agreement also stipulates that GE will help commercialize Osprey’s DyeVert products. The DyeVert system helps reduce the amount of contrast in the kidneys in certain procedures without compromising imaging quality. Aside from reducing contrast levels by up to 40%, it also helps providers keep track of the cumulative amounts of contrast in a patient’s system prior to the next procedure. It is currently the only FDA-approved medical device designed for such a function.
Osprey’s contrast minimization devices will work with GE Healthcare’s iodinated x-ray contrast media, as the two companies work together to prevent Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). Interventional Coronary Angiograms can cause patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) to experience sudden, irreparable damage to the kidneys. Results can range from minor loss of function to complete kidney failure and represent a rising problem within the field.
Osprey Medical CEO Mike McCormick called the partnership a “big step” for his company and stated that he is “pleased to be partnering with GE Healthcare” when he announced the deal. The products are currently only available in the U.S. and Australia, and this deal pushes them closer to a complete global distribution network.
GE Healthcare’s President and Chief Operating Officer of Pharmaceutical Diagnostics Business, Kevin O’Neill, stated that “GE Healthcare and Osprey share a similar goal rooted in improving patient outcomes. Both our product portfolios and educational efforts, which are aligned with cardiology guidelines for AKI minimization, offer interventional cardiologists the opportunity to safely image patients by reducing the risk of AKI.”
The imaging agents that come out of GE’s Pharmaceutical Diagnostics department reach approximately 90 million patients per year – which factors out to be a staggering 3 patients every second. Osprey will surely benefit from their marketing and distribution prowess, and countless patients will be able to reap the rewards of safer, less toxic procedures.
