A Medical Device Daily

DSM Biomedical (Berkeley, California) reported the expansion of its resources and operations in the U.S. and Europe to support the growing demand for its portfolio of polyurethanes for chronically implanted medical devices in the regions.

Earlier this year, DSM expanded the role of two of its business development managers, one in the U.S. and one in Europe, and an application development manager, based in Europe, to enhance the company's client relationships in the U.S. and Europe and offer an improved level of on-the-ground technical assistance for customers. According to the company, all three managers will be responsible for key business development activities, representing the broader portfolio of DSM, including managing customer relationships and providing technical assistance in the European and U.S. markets.

“Medical device manufacturers are fast recognizing a growing need for high performance, cost effective, and easy to implant devices produced from proven materials that have the potential to improve patient outcomes,“ said Bob Ward, president/CEO of DSM PTG, part of DSM Biomedical. “With the company's 20 years of experience developing innovative solutions for the medical device market as well as our recent investment in business and application development, we hope to not only offer a broader portfolio of solutions but also enable a faster material selection and design process based on proven materials, and ultimately device approvals for our clients and patients.“

DSM's business expansion comes on the heels of the company's recent announcement that it signed nine new license agreements in 2009 for its Bionate, BioSpan, CarboSil, Elasthane and PurSil brands of biomedical polymers, and formed eight new development partnerships with medical device companies in the last year alone, the company noted. DSM says these contracts underline an upward trend among medical device developers in enrolling material specialists to develop and license new polymer technologies essential to increasing the value, performance, and quality of their products.

Asuragen apppoints distributor in France

Asuragen (Austin), a developer of molecular diagnostics, reported the appointment of Biomedical Diagnostics (BMD; Paris), a medical diagnostic company in Europe, as its exclusive distributor of Signature oncology products in France. Asuragen's Signature oncology portfolio comprises multiplex assays for the detection of mutations in solid and hematologic malignancies. These include a research assay for KRAS and BRAF mutations, the LTx CE marked IVD assay to detect fusion transcripts in total RNA from whole blood or bone marrow to aid in the clinical diagnosis of translocation positive leukemias, and an assay for the simultaneous detection of the most common NPM1 Mutations. All these assays utilize multiplex RT-PCR followed by multiplex detection on the Luminex 100 IS or 200 system, Asuragen said.

“As we expand our Signature oncology portfolio with the launch of our Signature KRAS/BRAF multiplex assay, we are pleased to add a strong commercial partner like BMD to our growing network of international distributors,“ said Asuragen President Rollie Carlson. “In addition, BMD will be supporting our efforts in establishing clinical validation sites for the Signature KRAS/BRAF assay in France.“

Sorin gets due diligence request

The Sorin Group (Milan) said it has received a letter requesting permission to conduct, on an exclusive basis, a due diligence on the company, under appropriate confidentiality measures on behalf of a consortium composed of Ares Life Sciences (Zug, Switzerland), Essex Woodlands Health Ventures UK (London), Intesa SanPaolo (Turin, Italy) and Alpha Private Equity Funds (Zurich, Switzerland).

The consortium requests the conduct of due diligence in order to evaluate a possible public, voluntary tender offer for the entire share capital of the company, on the basis of a preliminary valuation for each share of Sorin of between €1 .40 and €1 .55.

The board plans to meet today to examine the request from the consortium to conduct exclusive due diligence on the company.

Dominion to sell iMDsoft's MetaVision

iMDsoft (Leiden, the Netherlands), a provider of hospital-wide clinical information systems, and Dominion (Barcelona, Spain), a provider of technology solutions in Spain and Latin America, reported an agreement for Dominion to distribute iMDsoft's MetaVision suite of solutions in Spain.

The MetaVision Suite from iMDsoft includes fully-integrated tools for data collection, presentation, order management, reporting and analysis across the continuum of care, the company noted. It is intended to promote patient safety and enhance quality initiatives, cost containment, revenue capture, research, and compliance.

iMDsoft also reported that it has been selected by Gentofte University Hospital (Hellerup, Denmark) to deploy MetaVision in its newly-built ICU. According to the company, the hospital's department for invasive cardiology is Denmark's second largest, and many of its patients are treated in the ICU. The agreement marks iMDsoft's first deployment in that country. MetaVision will replace Philips CareVue clinical information system, the company noted.

Team joins consortium investing in Oval Medical

Team Consulting (Cambridge, UK) says it has joined the consortium of investors that is providing seed funding to Oval Medical Technologies (Cambridge), a developer of medical pre-filled syringes and autoinjectors.

Team will be joining with others, including The Cambridge Angels and Cambridge Capital Group, to provide Oval Medical with about £500,000 of new funds in exchange for equity. The company said this investment will it to “rapidly advance“ the development of its injection technology, including the production of new drug containers and prototype injection devices for validation by pharmaceutical partners.

Founded in 2009 by CEO Matthew Young, Oval develops its own intellectual property relating to pre-filled syringe and autoinjector technology.