Guerbet Acquires Stake in AI and Imaging Software Company
The Guerbet Group has acquired a 39% stake in the share capital of Intrasense, a France-based medical imaging software solutions company, with plans to file in the near future, on a voluntary basis, a proposed tender offer for the balance of the shares of Intrasense. The initial acquisition totaled 8.8 million euros, and both the initial issuance price and future tender offer are at 0.44 euro per share, representing a premium of 34.15% over the last closing price of the shares of Intrasense.
"Our goal is to accelerate our growth dynamic by continuing to invest in innovation and maximizing the distribution of our solutions. The presence of a reference shareholder in our capital such as Guerbet responds to this challenge. It provides us with the ability to penetrate our target markets much more rapidly and efficiently through an enriched offering and the optimization of our visibility within the global medical imaging ecosystem. We are delighted with this opportunity for Intrasense and welcome the great complementarity of our proposals," comments Nicolas Reymond, CEO of Intrasense.
"Our acquisition of a stake in Intrasense is a concrete expression of our desire to leverage the digital imaging technology and algorithms that we have developed over the past several years. This strategic partnership will enable us to benefit from proven expertise in the integration of artificial intelligence into the clinical routine of practitioners in imaging and oncology," said David Hale, CEO of Guerbet.
Intrasense has recognized expertise in the field of software solutions that facilitate and secure diagnosis, decision making and therapeutic follow-up in medical imaging, in particular thanks to its clinical orchestration capabilities of artificial intelligence, within the daily practice of clinicians.
Guerbet, a leading global player in the medical imaging market, has diversified its activities in the digital sector in recent years, notably by developing innovative artificial intelligence algorithms enabling the detection of liver lesions, prostate and pancreatic cancers and bone metastases. In November 2022, Guerbet took over all the algorithms developed in the framework of its partnership with Merative (IBM Watson) as well as their intellectual property, giving it the strategic latitude necessary to plan the marketing of these solutions.
Guerbet's acquisition of a stake in Intrasense will enable Intrasense to enhance its product offering and benefit from the support of a major shareholder to carry out the investments required to implement its growth plan. It will enable Guerbet to enhance the value of its technology and artificial intelligence algorithms.
As part of this project, Intrasense and Guerbet plan to enter into a licensing agreement in the first half of 2023 that would enable Intrasense to integrate and market Guerbet's artificial intelligence algorithms within its software platforms, thereby complementing the various partnerships already concluded in oncology. A collaboration agreement has been in place since October 2022 to study the technical feasibility of this integration and the two companies have also recently entered into a non-binding agreement on the main terms and conditions of the envisaged licensing agreement. This agreement was negotiated at arm's length. More specifically, it will enable Intrasense to integrate the algorithms developed by Guerbet for the detection of liver lesions, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer and bone lesions, into its Myrian product offering and into its new oncology product line. Intrasense will be responsible for the clinical validation and regulatory registration of the products for which it will be the legal manufacturer.
Integration of numerous artificial intelligence technologies from Guerbet and third parties is in line with the ‘clinical routine tools’ strategy already initiated by Intrasense. According to Intrasense, the delivery of this strategy will strengthen the company’s high value-added offering in the global imaging market.