• Becton Dickinson (BD; Franklin Lakes, New Jersey) has completed its acquisition of HandyLab (Ann Arbor, Michigan), which develops and manufactures molecular diagnostic assays and automation platforms. BD paid $275 million for HandyLab. BD will migrate its BD GeneOhm molecular assays for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Clostridium difficile and Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) onto the new platform and will market them as the new BD MAX system, an evolution of the current Jaguar system.

• GE Healthcare (Waukesha, Wisconsin) reported that it has acquired Living Independently Group, (New York), the provider of QuietCare a passive monitoring system used to assist in the care of seniors. The acquisition follows the September 2008 report that GE Healthcare had acquired a minority ownership stake in Living Independently Group and that the two companies had agreed to market and co-develop the QuietCare technology globally. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Hospira (Lake Forest, Illinois), a provider of clinical information and medication delivery technologies, reported that it has acquired TheraDoc (Salt Lake City), a clinical informatics company that develops hospital surveillance systems. TheraDoc's two leading products, Infection Control Assistant and Antibiotic Assistant, join Hospira's expanding portfolio of medication safety and infection management products. As part of the agreement, Hospira acquired additional assets related to the TheraDoc business, including the headquarters in Salt Lake City, and the TheraDoc employees are now a part of Hospira. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

• Kimberly-Clark (Dallas) said it would buy all remaining shares of I-Flow (Lake Forest, California), now that shareholders have tendered — and Kimberly Clark has bought — 90.8% of I-Flow's common shares. I-Flow makes drug delivery devices and surgical products like pumps and catheters. I-Flow will become a part of Kimberly-Clark Health Care. Kimberly-Clark first reported its plan to acquire I-Flow for about $276 million back in October.

• Maquet Cardiovascular (Wayne, New Jersey) a provider of cardiovascular technologies reported that it has signed a guaranteed two-year contract with Novation, (Irving Texas) to be the sole source provider of surgical devices for beating heart cardiac surgery. Under the terms of the agreement, which runs through Oct. 31, 2012, Maquet Cardiovascular will be the exclusive provider of beating heart devices and disposable supplies to the members of VHA (Irving, Texas) and University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC; Oak Brook, Illinois). Those members will now have access to all of Maquet's beating heart products, including the industry-leading ACROBAT stabilizer system and the HeartString Proximal Seal System.

• Neuros Medical (Cleveland) reported the commencement of its product development effort to generate innovative neurostimulation technology for the treatment of chronic pain. To aid in the technology development, Neuros has tapped Battelle (Columbus, Ohio) to develop a neurostimulation device, which will be led by Zi-Ping Fang, CTO at Neuros Medical.

• On-X Life Technologies (Austin, Texas) manufacturers of the On-X Prosthetic Heart Valve, reported that it has entered into an exclusive worldwide license with the Cleveland Clinic for a system of products intended to improve and simplify the replacement of damaged or severed mitral valve chordae. The system is the creation of co-inventors Marc Gillinov, MD, a staff cardiac surgeon at Cleveland Clinic, and Michael Banbury, MD, of Christiana Care's Center for Heart and Vascular Health (Wilmington, Delaware), and will be co-developed with the On-X LTI New Product Development team.

• QuadraMed (Reston Virginia) a provider of healthcare information technologies and services, reported that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by Francisco Partners (San Francisco). Francisco Partners has agreed to acquire all of the outstanding shares of QuadraMed's common stock for $8.50 per share in cash and all of the outstanding shares of QuadraMed's Series A cumulative mandatory convertible preferred stock for $13.7097 per-share in cash. The per-share consideration to the Series A preferred stock represents the common-equivalent consideration for such Series A preferred stock based on its conversion ratio. The all-cash transaction is valued at nearly $126 million.

• In a year-end deal that will now position orthopedics giant Stryker (Kalamazoo, Michigan) as one of the largest device reprocessing firms in the U.S., the company has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Ascent Healthcare Solutions (Phoenix) in an all-cash transaction valued at $525 million. Ascent was formed in 2005 in a merger of medical device reprocessors Alliance Medical (Phoenix) and Vanguard Medical Concepts (Lakeland, Florida). At the time, Ascent reported that it represented close to half of the hospitals in the U.S. who use reprocessed medical devices, making it the largest third-party reprocessor of single-use medical devices. Ascent currently provides its services to 1,800 hospitals and numerous group purchasing organizations throughout North America. In 2008 it reported sales in excess of $100 million.