A Medical Device Daily

Haemonetics (Braintree, Massachusetts) has entered into a deal with Blood Centers of America (BCA; West Warwick, Rhode Island), a cooperative of community blood centers, which will provide BCA members access to Haemonetics' blood management software.

Specifically, the agreement provides the BCA member's access to Prelude and Interlude, modules of Haemonetics' integrated Symphony set of products that are designed to automate blood bank operations. BCA members will also have access to Haemonetics' eQue automated interview and assessment donor screening system.

The eQue automated interview and assessment donor screening system is a donor registration and assessment tool designed to assist blood banks and plasma centers in determining a person's eligibility to donate blood.

This is the second big deal this month for Haemonetics. Earlier this month, the company acquired the blood collection and processing business of Engineering and Research Associates (Tucson). The transaction, worth $12.5 million in cash, is expected to be complete in a few months time. The acquisition expands the vista of Haemonetics' product offerings and increases its top-line. Furthermore, it strengthens the company's position in the blood collection market. Haemonetics is developing an automated whole blood collection system and expects to launch it in late fiscal 2011.

In other agreements and contracts news:

• Epic (Austin, Texas) has formed a joint venture, Hallmark Heritage, with Level 3 Capital Partners and Senior Care Group. The joint venture is being organized to become a real estate investment trust. Its business is to own and master lease healthcare facilities operated and managed by Senior Care; to provide long term financing for the facilities operated and managed by Senior Care, now and in the future; and to participate in takeout financing for the Senior Care Communities developed by Senior Care.

• BrainLAB (Westchester, Illinois) and Leica Microsystems (Wetzlar, Germany) reported the integration of BrainLAB Image-Guided Surgery (IGS) software and platforms with the Leica M720 OH5 microscope. Linking BrainLAB IGS products with the Leica M720 OH5 microscope gives surgeons centralized control for more efficient and effective technology management during procedures.

"Integration of the Leica M720 OH5 and our other microscopes with IGS products from BrainLAB gives us the opportunity to make our high-tech precision optics systems even more accessible and user friendly in the OR. Our work with BrainLAB further reinforces our mission to fulfill and regularly exceed the expectations and needs of our customers," said Roger Spink, senior product Manager, Leica Microsystems.