EXPANDING North-East firm Kromek has agreed an extended deal with a leading manufacturer of computer tomography (CT) scanners.

Kromek, which supplies high tech scanners to the security, medical and nuclear industries, has received a $1m exclusivity payment to extend a previously announced programme for a second year.

This payment is part of a programme that comes under Kromek’s mutually exclusive development contract, worth up to $5.3m, with the manufacturer for developing and supplying Cadmium Zinc Telluride detectors for producing high resolution colour X-Ray images by CT scanners.

Arnab Basu, chief executive of Sedgefield-based Kromek, said: “We are delighted to be progressing this project to advance colour CT imaging, which can lead to major healthcare benefits for diagnosis and treatment ofcers, cardiovascular diseases and other pathologies. With the success of our collaboration, our relationship with this key OEM partner continues to develop and grow stronger.

"This latest step is a clear endorsement of our technology and our long-term strategy to position Kromek’s subcomponents at the heart of major global OEMs’ medical imaging systems to improve diagnostic capabilities, resulting in better clinical outcomes.”

This contract does not change the Company’s expectations for the year ended 30 April 2015. However, it provides further evidence of the progress towards meeting market expectations, it said in a statement.