Siemens Healthineers is purchasing the diagnostic business of Novartis subsidiary Advanced Accelerator Applications for over €200 million ($224 million), according to a new report. Advanced Accelerator Applications, which was bought by Novartis in 2017 for $3.9 billion, operates Europe’s second largest network of cyclotrons.

According to the Financial Times, Siemens Healthineers said the deal would allow its U.S.-based PETNET Solutions radiopharmaceuticals business to expand into Europe.

Murmurs about a potential sale of parts of the AAA business surfaced late last year. Novartis has recently zeroed in on high-growth areas in cardiovascular, immunology, neuroscience, solid tumors, and hematology markets, including gene and cell therapy, radioligand therapy, and "xRNA".

AAA was founded in 2002 as a spinoff of CERN, and produces radiopharmaceuticals for PET and SPECT imaging of cancers, cardiovascular, and neurological disorders in the early stages, as well as for therapeutics, including precision radioligand imaging and targeted radioligand therapy. Among its products are Pluvicto, for treating castration-resistant prostate cancer, and Lutathera, the first-ever approved peptide receptor radionuclide therapy for treating somatostatin-receptor positive gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.

The transaction is expected to close in the last quarter of the year, pending regulatory approval and negotiations with Novartis’ works council. Novartis put AAA’s diagnostics division up for sale last year, in an effort to divest low-growth parts of its business.

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