A Medical Device Daily

HLTH Corporation (Elmwood Park, New Jersey) said it has agreed to sell its Porex segment to affiliates of Aurora Capital Group (Los Angeles), a private equity firm, for $142 million. The closing is expected in the fourth quarter and is subject to customary closing conditions, including the expiration or termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, HLTH said.

The purchase price of $142 million consists of $74.5 million in cash payable at closing and $67.5 million in senior secured debt. The $67.5 million in senior secured debt accrues interest at a rate of 8.75% per annum paid quarterly. The principal is to be paid down by $10 million a year on the anniversary of the closing for each of the first three years and by a final payment of $37.5 million on the fourth anniversary of the closing. The debt will be secured by the assets of Porex.

Porex makes porous plastic products and components used in healthcare, industrial and consumer applications. Its customers include both end-users of its finished products, as well as manufacturers that include its components in their products. Porex is an international business with manufacturing operations in North America, Europe and Asia and customers in more than 75 countries.

HLTH said it previously disclosed its intent to sell Porex and has been reflecting Porex as discontinued operations in its financial statements.

In connection with the sale of Porex, Jefferies & Co., acted as HLTH's exclusive financial advisor and Shearman & Sterling acted as HLTH's legal advisor.

In other dealmaking activity, Wound Management Technologies (WMT; Fort Worth, Texas), a provider of specialty medical products, reported that it has completed the acquisition of BioPharma Management Technologies (also Fort Worth), a privately held biotechnology company with a platform of technologies for topical pain management and resorbable orthoses.

BioPharma is now a wholly owned subsidiary of WMT in exchange for 4.5 million shares of Wound Management Technologies common stock. The deal was first disclosed in June (Medical Device Daily, June 18, 2009).

"BioPharma's proprietary technologies and its future products are complementary to our major product CellerateRx," said Scott Haire, CEO of Wound Management Technologies. "BioPharma provides broad new applications across several of the medical markets that we currently serve. Over the past year we have made excellent progress in bringing the science and technology of CellerateRx to the market. Now with the acquisition of BioPharma, we are adding additional science and technology that strengthen Wound Management Technologies' role as a leading global provider of wound care products."

The company said CellerateRx is a collagen hydrolysate polypeptid whose patented collagen fragments, which are a fraction of the size of the native collagen molecules and particles found in other products, deliver the benefits of collagen to the body immediately. CellerateRx is used in the management of pressure ulcers, traumatic wounds, diabetic ulcers, first and second-degree burns, venous stasis ulcers, ulcers due to arterial insufficiency and superficial wounds.