GE Healthcare has inked a supply deal with Chile-based mining firm SQM to help the company meet global demand for x-ray and CT imaging contrast media.
The agreement will see SQM increase supply of iodine raw material year-on-year to enable the production of 30 million more patient doses of iodinated contrast media annually by 2025, GE said. GE's new $30 million manufacturing line at its contrast media production facility in Cork, Ireland, also opened this week.
Significant growth in x-ray and CT procedures has increased global demand for iodinated contrast media, which are used to visualize organs, blood vessels, and tissues during imaging procedures, GE said.
The supply deal comes on the heels of contrast media production woes that GE experienced earlier this year with the shutdown of its manufacturing plant in Shanghai, China, due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
![Images show the pectoralis muscles of a healthy male individual who never smoked (age, 66 years; height, 178 cm; body mass index [BMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared], 28.4; number of cigarette pack-years, 0; forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1], 97.6% predicted; FEV1: forced vital capacity [FVC] ratio, 0.71; pectoralis muscle area [PMA], 59.4 cm2; pectoralis muscle volume [PMV], 764 cm3) and a male individual with a smoking history and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) (age, 66 years; height, 178 cm; BMI, 27.5; number of cigarette pack-years, 43.2, FEV1, 48% predicted; FEV1:FVC, 0.56; PMA, 35 cm2; PMV, 480.8 cm3) from the Canadian Cohort Obstructive Lung Disease (i.e., CanCOLD) study. The CT image is shown in the axial plane. The PMV is automatically extracted using the developed deep learning model and overlayed onto the lungs for visual clarity.](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/03/genkin.25LqljVF0y.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
