Singapore: Gloal medical imaging firm, Guerbet (GBT), has partnered with Beijing Kyuan Pharmaceutical, drug distributors and importers in the Chinese market, to distribute and commercialize Lipiodol Ultra-Fluid.

Lipiodol Ultra-Fluid (ethyl esters of iodized fatty acids of poppy-seed oil) was initially developed for diagnostic radiology in indications including liver lesion diagnosis, lymphography and hysterosalpingography, and then used in interventional radiology for conventional transarterial chemo-embolization (cTACE) procedures of multinodular hepatocellular carcinoma, where Lipiodol Ultra-Fluid was used as a procedure visualizer (contrast agent), a drug eluting vehicle (drug carrier), and a dual arterio-portal transient embolic.

Marie-Claire Taine, commercial VP, Guerbet Group, commented, "We are looking forward to open new horizons in Interventional Oncology via this agreement with Kyuan, one of the country's top drug distributors and one of the most reputed pharmaceutical partners throughout China, as we are determined to facilitate access for Chinese practitioners to the cTACE procedure which is standard-of-care across the world in interventional radiology."

A registration application has been filed in China in April 2015 for the use of Lipiodol Ultra-Fluid in conventional trans-arterial chemoembolization (cTACE) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common liver cancer. TACE is recommended for Child-Pugh A/B HCC patients by the Chinese Guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of primary liver cancer.

Lipiodol is registered in China in its two conventional indications, lymphography and the treatment of iodine deficiency.