First-quarter sales and earnings grew at multimodality vendor GE Healthcare of Waukesha, WI. The company said its results for the period (end-March 31) were highlighted by strong growth in its ultrasound and PET businesses.
For the quarter, GE Healthcare posted sales of $2.495 billion, up 17% compared with sales of $2.14 billion in the same period a year earlier. The healthcare segment's profit for the period was $339 million, up 11% compared with $306 million in the first quarter of 2003.
Among quarterly highlights was a 15% increase in orders, to $2.4 billion. Orders for ultrasound equipment grew 22%, to nearly $200 million, and 48% for PET systems, to over $100 million. GE Healthcare also shipped its 100th Discovery ST PET/CT system, and received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for its LightSpeed VCT 64-slice scanner.
The quarter was the last reporting period for GE prior to yesterday's close of its acquisition of pharmaceutical developer Amersham. GE's equipment business will become known as GE Healthcare Technologies, while the Amersham unit will be called GE Healthcare Bio-Sciences, both operating within GE Healthcare. The Amersham operations will add some $3 billion in annual revenues to GE Healthcare.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writersApril 9, 2004
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GE hits Discovery ST milestone, April 1, 2004
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Amersham OKs GE acquisition, March 19, 2004
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