Bayer to reshuffle diagnostics business

FRANKFURT, Sept 16 (Reuters) - German drugmaker Bayer (BAYGn.DE) is to overhaul its contrast agents business, seeking marketing synergies with its U.S. medical devices unit Medrad, as it cuts costs to counter generic competition.

Bayer is to create a new sub-unit to combine contrast agents -- products used to highlight body parts during medical imaging -- with Medrad, which makes devices to diagnose and treat cardiovascular conditions, because both businesses target radiologists and cardiologists, a spokesman said on Friday.

Germany's largest drugmaker is in the midst of a restructuring programme to cut annual costs 800 million euros ($1.1 billion) as government austerity measures and generic competition drain its financial resources.

Its contrast agents include Ultravist to X-ray blood vessels and Magnevist to diagnose nerve diseases via magnetic resonance imaging with 2010 sales of 313 million euros and 215 million respectively.

German daily Financial Times Deutschland reported people familiar with the matter saying Bayer has also been looking for a buyer for its experimental Alzheimer's diagnostic substance florbetaben as part of the overhaul at the contrast agents unit.

The Bayer spokesman declined to comment to Reuters on the reported divestment plan.

Bayer in 2009 started enrolling participants for the last stage of testing of the Alzheimer's marker, which could offer a way to diagnose early onset of the disease.

At the time, Bayer was expecting results from the trials in 2014 and predicted 250-500 million euros in peak annual sales from the product. The spokesman on Friday declined to provide an update of that estimate.

Injection of florbetaben highlights proteins which are associated with Alzheimer's disease in patients' brains under a positron emission tomography (PET) scan.

Currently, only advanced symptoms such as memory loss and impaired speech and movement can give an indication of the illness. Only a post-mortem brain tissue examination can bring absolute certainty.

Among the few treatment options against Alzheimer's are Eisai and Pfizer's Aricept, Exelon from Novartis , Ebixa from Lundbeck and Reminyl from Shire . ($1 = 0.722 euro) (Reporting by Ludwig Burger and Frank Siebelt; Editing by Dan Lalor)