Amersham Health's secondary production facility in Cork, Ireland has received FDA approval for manufacturing and packaging of three of the company's most widely used medical diagnostic products, Omnipaque, Omniscan and Visipaque.

With this approval, Amersham Health will be able to meet growing demand for these products in the US market. "The number of contrast media enhanced examinations continue to increase driven by advances in technology coupled with an ageing population", says Dr John Padfield, CEO of Amersham Health. "This approval and the transfer of much of our production for finished products into the Cork facility, is consistent with our overall strategy to expand on our best in class production efficiencies, to enable the manufacture of consistently high quality products at low production costs."

Last month, Amersham plc announced a substantial investment to expand Amersham Health's bulk chemical production site at Lindesnes, Norway. This new investment in expanded capacity came only nine months after the official opening of the company's latest production expansion at Lindesnes. The initiatives in Lindesnes and Cork are in response to strong growth in our medical diagnostic products around the world.