The CEO of GE Healthcare, John Flannery, reaffirmed the company's commitment to the life sciences business -- and the broader healthcare market in general -- in comments made on March 11 at an investor meeting, according to published reports.
GE's Life Sciences business contributes about $4 billion a year in sales to an overall GE Healthcare operation that generates $17.6 billion annually. The business includes the company's operations in diagnostics as well as research tools and drug discovery.
GE has been seeking to retool itself with a focus on heavy industry, and industry scuttlebutt has hinted that it could divest the GE Healthcare business. But Flannery reaffirmed GE's commitment to healthcare, and the company sees life sciences as a part of that, Flannery said in an article published by Bloomberg.
Flannery acknowledged that GE has found it difficult to cut costs and widen its profit margins, according to an article from TheStreet. But he attributed this to external factors such as the Affordable Care Act, and said that healthcare is a "huge, essential market" that has "core long-term growth drivers."
He went on to state that the company's growth plans have been stymied somewhat by an environment in which prices for new acquisitions have been "too high," and he acknowledged that GE had been outbid on some deals. Going forward, GE Healthcare will focus on smaller deals, he said.
