GE Healthcare and Takeda to conduct liver disease research

GE Healthcare has announced a new collaboration with Takeda to carry out research and development that will lead to the creation of new therapies for liver diseases.

The partnership will focus on the field of hepatic fibrosis, a key factor in the diagnosis and treatment of liver diseases, and will aim to create new minimally invasive diagnostic techniques.

GE Healthcare will provide Takeda with diagnostic imaging technology to generate a liver stiffness map to aid the Japanese pharmaceutical firm's liver disease research.

Currently, the diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis is most commonly conducted by a liver biopsy, in which a needle is inserted through the skin into the liver. However, it is thought that the advent of  MR elastography technology means that such invasive techniques are no longer needed.

Akihiko Kumagai, chairman of GE Healthcare in Japan with overall responsibility for liver disease programmes, said: "It is extremely gratifying to me that, through this collaboration, our technologies will be of use in the development of treatments for the liver diseases that are of particular importance not just in Asia, but worldwide."

This comes after the firm announced last month that it will be working with GlaxoSmithKline to create new cancer diagnostic tests.