Dive Brief:
- Fujifilm has agreed to acquire Inspirata's Dynamyx digital pathology business and challenge companies such as Philips for the nascent market.
- Through the buyout, Fujifilm will take over Inspirata's Dynamyx digital pathology technology, employees and customers and expand its existing Synapse Enterprise Imaging.
- The expansion moves Fujifilm into a space targeted by Philips, which brought digital pathology to the U.S. market via the de novo pathway in 2017, and others including Danaher and Roche.
Dive Insight:
Fujifilm began working with Inspirata in 2020, when it signed a deal that allowed it to supply and service digital pathology workflow software globally and with exclusivity in some European countries. The pact positioned Fujifilm to bid on enterprise digital pathology tenders using Inspirata’s digital pathology portfolio.
The experience persuaded Fujifilm to get deeper into digital pathology, Masa Fukumoto, managing director of Fujifilm Healthcare Europe, said in a statement. The amount Fujifilm will pay was not disclosed.
“Since launching our European partnership with Inspirata three years ago, we’ve seen great success implementing our combined technologies in several healthcare organizations, notably in the U.K. We've received feedback from customers anticipating digitizing pathology will be the most transformative thing they do for their practice, and we look forward to continuing our global expansion,” Fukumoto said.
Inspirata received 510(k) clearance from the Food and Drug Administration last year with an application that cited the Leica Aperio AT2 DX System and Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution as predicate devices. The availability of multiple digital pathology systems is yet to translate into a widespread shift to the new technologies, with Fujifilm estimating that 85% of U.S. healthcare organizations still use analog systems.
Henry Izawa, the CEO of Fujifilm Healthcare Americas Corp., said the global digital pathology market could be worth $640 million by 2025, up from $320 million last year. He pointed to “the rising number of cancer cases and the demonstrated benefits of digital pathology ... fueling significant demand and market growth in the hospital and pharmaceutical industries.”
Fujifilm wants to increase the use of digital systems by pushing the vendor-agnostic Dynamyx system, but it will face competition from large rivals. Roche sells the Ventana DP 600 slide scanner in Europe, but the device is only available for research use in the U.S.
