Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis announced on Saturday that it has received a binding offer from Siemens Healthineers, a German health technology firm, to purchase its molecular imaging business focused on Fluorine-18 positron emission tomography (PET) scans.
According to a report from the Financial Times, Siemens Healthineers is set to pay over 200 million euros ($224 million) for the diagnostic division of Advanced Accelerator Applications, a subsidiary of Novartis. While Novartis did not confirm the deal’s value in its statement to Reuters, the company noted that Siemens Healthineers will continue to collaborate with Novartis on its radioligand therapy (RLT) business. The transaction is expected to be finalized in the fourth quarter of this year.
Novartis acquired France’s Advanced Accelerator Applications in 2017 for $3.9 billion as part of its strategy to expand its portfolio of cancer treatments using radioactive substances. Fluorine-18, a radioactive isotope, is being studied for its potential in PET imaging to diagnose cancer and assess the effectiveness of certain treatments, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute.