Developer of Omniscan (Gd DTPA-BMA) one of the Gd-based contrast agents currently on the market.
In the course of different cooperations to develop new agents, Winthrop Laboratories worked together with the companies Sanofi and Sterling. Omniscan is now distributed by GE Healthcare.

Omniscan® is a nonionic chelate complex with low osmolality used as a paramagnetic MRI contrast agent. The efficacy of Omniscan® is similar to that of Gd-DTPA. Omniscan® is given intravenously to enhance images of intracranial and spinal lesions where there is abnormal vascularity or an abnormal blood brain barrier. The complex does not cross an intact blood brain barrier so Omniscan® only accumulates in lesions such as neoplasm's and abscesses.

WARNING: NEPHROGENIC SYSTEMIC FIBROSIS Gadolinium-based contrast agents increase the risk for nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) in patients with acute or chronic severe renal insufficiency (glomerular filtration rate less than 30 mL/min/1.73m²), or acute renal insufficiency of any severity due to the hepato-renal syndrome or in the perioperative liver transplantation period.

See also Gadodiamide, and Classifications, Characteristics, etc.