A Medical Device Daily

Misonix (Farmingdale, New York), a developer of minimally invasive ultrasonic medical device technology, which in Europe is used for the ablation of tumors and worldwide for other acute health conditions, reported that substantially all of the assets of its subsidiary, Acoustic Marketing Research (d/b/a Sonora Medical Systems), were sold to Medical Imaging Holdings (Golden, Colorado) for $8 million in cash. With the completion of this transaction, Misonix will have raised more than $15 million from the sale of non-strategic businesses in the past 6 months, the company said.

"We are pleased to announce this transaction which will provide the additional capital necessary to be used to accelerate the growth of our expanding therapeutic medical device business. These funds will be used for potential acquisitions of new products that can be sold together with our present products in our existing sales distribution, additional selling capability, product development, the licensing of new technology and general corporate purposes, among other uses," said Misonix President/CEO Michael McManus.

Medical Imaging Holdings is a private holding company formed by Galen Partners to execute a consolidation of high-potential, technology-enabled companies and assets in the medical imaging market.

In other dealmaking news, Brazos International Exploration (Brooklyn, New York) reported that it has executed a letter of intent to merge with Epinex Diagnostics (Tustin, California), a biomedical device company. The companies said they expect to execute a definitive plan of merger on or before October 19.

Epinex specializes in the development of rapid tests that target major deficiencies in the existing healthcare market, especially diabetes. Epinex has developed a new diabetes-monitoring device that could relieve the burden of diabetes on our healthcare system. The Epinex G1A Rapid Diabetes Monitoring Index Test is a unique monthly rapid test that uses glycated albumin to directly measure how much damage has been done to the body by excess sugar (glycation). This test could allow doctors to take action sooner than current diabetes testing methods to reduce the severity and cost of diabetes with its inherent complications, which include blindness, kidney failure and cardiac disease. The addition of a system for monthly glycation monitoring would also likely decrease the number of daily blood glucose tests currently recommended for most Type 2 diabetics (95% of the diabetes market). This could increase compliance with testing guidelines and offer a major immediate cost savings to the healthcare system, the company said.

The test also has the potential to be an indicator for the early diagnosis of diabetes. Used in a system of preventive monitoring, the test could help borderline and pre-diabetics take corrective action and lifestyle modification before developing diabetes.

The letter of intent anticipates a merger between a wholly owned subsidiary of Brazos and Epinex in a transaction intended to qualify as a tax free exchange whereby Brazos will issue 16.2 million shares of its common stock to the shareholders of Epinex on a pro rata basis in proportion to their respective shareholdings of Epinex and cancel 4.3 million shares of its outstanding common stock. On closing the shareholders of Epinex will acquire a majority position in the shares of Brazos in exchange for all of the issued and outstanding securities of Epinex, including stock options that will be cancelled in exchange for new stock option grants under a Brazos stock option plan. Brazos said it intends to close a $2.5 million financing concurrent with the closing of the acquisition.

Asad Zaidi, Epinex's president, said that the "merger will give Epinex access to the necessary public financing that will facilitate our continued innovation in this space." He added that "this transaction presents an opportunity for our current shareholders and prospective shareholders to participate in our growth."