GE HealthCare agreed Monday to acquire privately held SOFIE Biosciences for $945 million in cash, expanding its U.S. network for producing and distributing short-lived radiopharmaceuticals used in PET imaging.
The transaction would place SOFIE inside GE HealthCare’s Pharmaceutical Diagnostics segment after closing. The companies expect that to occur in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary conditions.
Why the manufacturing network matters
SOFIE operates 15 contract-manufacturing sites across the United States with 21 cyclotrons, the machines used to produce radioactive isotopes for imaging agents. Many PET radiopharmaceuticals lose their activity quickly; fluorine-18, for example, has a half-life of about 110 minutes. That makes local production and time-sensitive delivery central to the business.
GE HealthCare said the acquisition would give it a larger “final mile” network while allowing SOFIE to keep supplying products made for other radiopharmaceutical companies. Reuters reported that the all-cash purchase is intended to strengthen GE HealthCare’s ability to manufacture and distribute PET imaging drugs.
FAPI-74 rights are part of the deal
The acquisition also includes U.S. rights to FAPI-74, an experimental fluorine-18 PET tracer in Phase III testing. GE HealthCare already holds rights outside the United States. The company says the tracer may have potential for imaging several cancers, but it remains investigational; the transaction does not establish that it will receive regulatory approval or become commercially successful.
SOFIE’s network currently manufactures multiple PET products, including GE HealthCare’s Flyrcado cardiac-imaging agent. GE HealthCare said SOFIE would continue operating as a contract manufacturer for existing customers after the acquisition.
What investors should watch
GE HealthCare estimates that SOFIE will grow revenue at a low-double-digit rate and that the purchase will add to revenue growth, adjusted operating margin and adjusted earnings per share during the first full year of ownership. Those are company forecasts rather than guaranteed results.
The deal still faces closing conditions, integration work and the risks associated with developing and commercializing radiopharmaceutical products. GE HealthCare did not describe FAPI-74 as an approved cancer test in the United States.
The purchase follows continued investment across medical imaging and specialty medicines. AskNovus recently covered CSL’s rare-disease partnership with Alentis and the 2026 Nobel Medicine Prize for optogenetics research.
Sources
- GE HealthCare — acquisition announcement, October 5, 2026
- Reuters — GE HealthCare–SOFIE transaction report, October 5, 2026
Illustrative image credit: Navy Medicine/Unsplash.