GE & Veran ink supplier agreement

GE Healthcare and Veran have signed a strategic supplier agreement in which GE Healthcare becomes the exclusive distributor and reseller of Veran’s ig4 navigation system in the U.S.

The deal pairs Waukesha, Wis.-based GE’s Innova imaging systems with Veran’s FDA-cleared electromagnetic navigation platform.

The multimodality Veran ig4 system helps clinicians deliver instruments to small targets in difficult to access regions of the human body in order to diagnose and treat disease minimally invasively, according to the St. Louis, Mo.-based company. The navigation system uses electromagnetic localization and 4D registration to display an interventional instrument, such as a biopsy needle, or an ablation needle, on a computer monitor with respect to anatomic imaging and treatment planning.

Veran ig4 is compatible with GE’s Innova imaging systems, which acquire CT-like patient images of the target organ(s) that can be exported to the navigation system in the same imaging suite, during the same interventional procedure, the companies explained. The resulting displayed image provides navigation information to help physicians insert biopsy needles, ablation probes and other devices through the skin more quickly and with greater target accuracy. Also, using Innova CT images with Veran ig4 System may help to reduce the absorbed radiation dose through decreased use of fluoroscopy, the companies added.