The much-heralded merger of Canon and Toshiba Medical Systems is being delayed because of China, company officials say.

Canon decided to acquire Toshiba Medical Systems in March 2016 and asked fair trade agencies of 11 countries to judge whether the plan violates their monopoly rules. The process ended in December because of a long time for winning the approval from the Chinese authorities. Most other countries, including the United States, approved it in mid-2016 but Beijing spent nine months on its screening, they said.

“We don’t know whether China intentionally delayed the process, but it took Beijing too much time screening the plan, unlike Korea and other countries,” said Charles Ju, president of Toshiba Medical Systems Korea, during a news conference in Seoul Thursday. “Canon could take over the equities of Toshiba Medical Systems’ shares only Dec. 19, 2016.”

Noting that they will change the company name in 2018 after all related permissions and approvals come to a close, and use it for product labels, Ju said, “We have already made provisional registration on Toshiba Medical Systems to prevent others from using the name.”

The official corporate name of Toshiba Medical Systems will be changed to Canon Medical Systems Corp. from next year. The name of its Korean offshoot is Canon Medical Systems Korea. The Japan-headquartered Toshiba Medical is marketing its products in about 140 countries.

During the news conference, Toshiba Medical Systems also said it would release “Vantage Galan” in Korea, a new magnetic resonance imaging equipment with far reduced noise and checkup time compared with the existing products.

Vantage Galan could drastically decrease noise to 2db by using “mUTE” software as well as medical checkup time with the utilization of another software called “CardioLine,” the company said. It also has reduced the occurrence of the possibility of side effects from contrast agent by using non-contrast cinematography, officials said.