Agfa HealthCare signs four-year agreement with Chinese partners for distribution of radiography solutions, potentially worth 500 million US dollar

Agfa HealthCare, a leading provider of diagnostic imaging and healthcare IT solutions, announces today that it has signed a new four-year distribution agreement with its Chinese partners, responsible for the sale, distribution, installation and servicing of Agfa HealthCare’s solutions in the People’s Republic of China.

On this occasion, the Flemish Minister-President Kris Peeters will visit the Agfa-Gevaert Group headquarters in Mortsel (Belgium) later today (6.30 p.m.). At the press conference the Minister-President will speak about the importance and the further roll-out of the ’Medisch Centrum Vlaanderen’ (Flanders Medical Center) action plan as a part of the ’Vlaanderen in Actie’ (Flanders in Action) project.

The contract has an estimated value of around US$500 million and is valid for a period of four years. It covers the installation of Computed Radiography (CR) systems, imagers (printers for medical images) and the associated medical and hardcopy film. These solutions will, over a period of four years, capture and manage over 50,000,000 X-ray images, processed with Agfa HealthCare’s Musica2 Image Processing software, considered to be the standard in the market.

“The Chinese government will invest over 124 billion US dollars in healthcare over the coming three years and will build 5000 new hospitals, primarily in rural regions,” states Jo Cornu, CEO of the Agfa-Gevaert group. “Agfa HealthCare will play an instant and important role in this project, firstly through its innovative medical imaging solutions, from its film solutions to its leading digital radiography systems and later on through the introduction of medical image management IT-solutions and its overarching Hospital and Clinical Information Systems (HIS/CIS). Without any doubt, this contract will have a positive impact on the preservation of the employment in Flanders.”