Sectra's cooperation with Philips Medical Systems to change

Since 1997, Sectra has had a global cooperation with Philips Medical Systems, which has sold Sectra's software for processing digital X-ray images worldwide. "We have several project agreements with Philips that extend up to ten years and this cooperation will successively be terminated," relates Sectra's President and CEO Jan-Olof Brüer. "We assess that the termination will impact on our sales and earnings in the current fiscal year. At this time, however, it is difficult to provide any reliable view of the financial effects, since this depends on how much time the termination will require." The change provides Sectra the opportunity to review its sales channels. Sectra's sales of PACS are handled on a proprietary basis in Scandinavia and other selected markets as well as through partners, of which Philips was the largest. Sectra's largest sales together with Philips have been in the US. "Part of the sales for which Philips is currently responsible will be taken over by other partners that today are active in the same markets as Philips," says Jan-Olof Brüer. "At the same time, we gain the opportunity to advance our positions and will increase our focus on own sales in important key markets, as we do today in Scandinavia, where we have captured more than half of the total PACS market." The agreement with Philips does not involve Sectra's major future product, the digital mammography system Sectra MicroDose Mammography.