Canon U.S.A. Inc. is once again repositioning its global medical strategy — this time by transferring the X-ray business of its subsidiary Virtual Imaging to Canon Medical Systems USA.
The move is set to take place on January 1, 2020 and expected to boost company growth by offering customers more of a "one-stop-shop" experience for access to technology advancements, to purchase equipment, and for service and applications support.
“This strategic move offers customers Canon Medical Systems USA’s world-class and unified experience for equipment purchases, service and education solutions,” Toshio Takiguchi, senior managing executive officer at Canon Inc. and president and CEO of Canon Medical Systems, said in a statement.
The realignment will add the digital radiographic and mobile offerings to Canon Medical Systems USA's current X-ray portfolio of fluoroscopic systems — expanding its present product line.
The company will also be
transferring its eye care business operations within Canon U.S.A. Inc. to Canon Medical Systems USA.
Both transfers are part of a number of innovations recently initiated by the Japanese medical tech giant, a recent one being the
introduction of its new spectral CT system, the Aquilion ONE / PRISM Edition at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting.
The scanner combines artificial intelligence and 510(k)-pending Advanced intelligent Clear IQ Engine (AiCE) with Deep Learning Spectral Imaging capabilities to reconstruct images.
“Ask customers that have spectral from other solutions, how many of them are really using it,” Dhruv Mehta, senior manager of solutions marketing at Canon Medical, told HCB News. The answer, she says, is 'very few of them.' What we did at Canon is to take a very different approach, and we’ve used artificial intelligence to be able to come to market with a spectral solution that customers can use routinely.”
The company also recently acquired a 70 percent majority stake in Ohio-based RF coil maker Quality Electrodynamics (QED) in November, and plans to make it a consolidated Canon subsidiary.
“Now that we can access Canon’s state-of-the-art imaging and electronics technology, it will provide a new platform for QED to keep innovating, which is our lifeline,”
said company CEO Dr. Hiroyuki Fujita at the time.
Canon, however, has also faced challenges in 2019, including one regarding its highly unusual deal with Toshiba. The controversial $6.1 billion agreement between the two made waves in July when the deal structure Canon picked up from Toshiba Medical Systems Corp. (TMSC) earned it a 28 million euro ($32 million) fine from the European Commission. The motivation for the fine was a tactic the two used called “warehousing”, to get around filing requirements, EU antitrust enforcers said in a statement.
"Companies have to respect our competition rules and procedures,
said Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, adding that companies “are obliged to notify and wait for our approval before a merger can go ahead.”
Of the warehousing he noted, “Canon structured a transaction to circumvent these obligations when they acquired TMSC,” adding that, “our merger assessment and decision-making depends on the Commission being sure that companies are not jumping the gun and implementing mergers without our approval.”