Medical diagnostics ­ 55% of total Amersham sales
Diagnostic imaging agents used in medical scanning procedures to highlight organs, tissues and cells inside the human body, for the early detection, diagnosis and management of disease. Global market share 38% (company estimate).

Sales 2002: £886m
(including share of sales in Nihon Medi-Physics joint venture)

Operations
Headquarters in Amersham, UK. R&D and manufacturing sites in UK, USA, Norway, Sweden, Japan, China, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands. 50 sales offices, products marketed in over 120 countries. 5,300 employees.

Customers
Every single second, a patient at a hospital or clinic somewhere in the world is having a medical procedure using an Amersham Health product. Customers include radiologists, surgeons, cardiologists, oncologists, neurologists, radiotherapists and radiopharmacists.

Market drivers
Ageing population
Drive to reduce healthcare costs
Advances in imaging and scanner technology
Increase in number of interventional procedures
Better informed patients (internet)

Competitive strengths
Leading global brands in all imaging modalities
Low cost producer; high barriers to entry
Strong reputation
Continued innovation (including packaging)

Strategic focus
Enabling molecular medicine through imaging, by developing molecular diagnostics to detect the onset of disease, monitor its progression and predict the outcome of various treatment options.

Key medical diagnostic products

Omnipaque™ 2002 sales £222m, up 6% A low osmolar X-ray/CT (computed tomography) diagnostic, launched 20 years ago and still the world's best-selling diagnostic imaging agent for a wide range of indications in cardiology, neurology and cancer.		Myoview™ 2002 sales £133m, up 26% Our fastest-growing medical diagnostic product, this radiopharmaceutical imaging agent is used for visualising blood flow to the heart and heart function, and is also used in breast tumour imaging.
Omniscan™ 2002 sales £96m, up 17% Our leading product for MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), primarily used for imaging the central nervous system (brain tumours, stroke, spinal lesions); use being extended to cardiovascular disease.		Visipaque™ 2002 sales £91m, up 18% An advanced isosmolar X-ray/CT product for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease and to aid in stent placement, whose isotonic formulation provides an extra margin of safety and patient comfort.
Optison™ The leading ultrasound product for the emerging market of contrast-enhanced ultrasound, for visualising the borders of the heart muscle.		DaTSCAN™ This molecular diagnostic radiopharmaceutical is the first product that enables an objective diagnosis of Parkinson's disease as distinct from other, less serious disorders. Also being developed for diagnosis of Lewy body dementia. Marketed only in Europe.
Other activities
Imanet™ An expanding network of imaging research centres where Amersham Health works in collaboration with the world's top pharmaceutical companies. Imanet uses innovative imaging solutions such as PET (positron-emission tomography) to accelerate drug discovery and development, and to create new molecular diagnostics that will enable physicians to more accurately predict and diagnose disease and to tailor treatment accordingly.		Therapy products 4% of total Amersham sales 2002 sales £62m Radioactive seed products ­ OncoSeed™, Rapid Strand™, EchoSeed™ and TheraSeed™ ­ are implanted in the prostate gland to treat prostate cancer, through a close-range irradiation technique known as brachytherapy. In April 2003 Amersham's brachytherapy business was merged with the urology business (cryotherapy) of Galil Medical Ltd. Amersham owns 75% of the new joint venture (click here for full press release).