• Aircraft Medical (Edinburgh, Scotland) reported that it has entered the emergent depth of anesthesia monitoring market with the acquisition of Morpheus Medical (Barcelona, Spain), a developer of patient monitoring devices for the anesthesia and critical care markets. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Morpheus’ lead product, the IoC-View, is designed to measure the level of consciousness during general anesthesia, helping to avoid the risk of patients remaining conscious through a procedure or conversely of receiving too much anesthetic, impeding a fast recovery. Aircraft said the acquisition is in line with its long-term strategic aim of developing a broader product offering for the anesthesia and critical care markets.

• Hatch Medical (Duluth, Georgia), a medical device incubator and technology brokerage firm, reported that Merit Medical Systems (South Jordan, Utah) has acquired the EN Snare foreign body retrieval device assets for $21 million dollars in cash. The purchase price consists of an initial payment of $14 million with an additional payment of $7 million upon the completion of certain milestones. According to Hatch, the EN Snare, developed in conjunction with Phase One Medical (Carver, Massachusetts), incorporates technology and design elements that improve upon the overall utility, accuracy and simplicity of foreign body retrieval. The device was introduced in 2002.

Urology services provider HealthTronics (Austin, Texas) reported that it will acquire Endocare (Irvine, California), a company focused on the development of minimally invasive technologies for tissue and tumor ablation, in a cash and stock deal worth about $16 million Under the terms, Endocare shareholders can elect to get $1.35 a share in cash for each Endocare share, provided it does not exceed 50% of the total consideration. The shareholders will also have the option to get 0.7764 shares of HealthTronics’ stock, provided it does not exceed 75% of the total consideration. The offer represents a 50% premium to the stock’s closing price Friday on Nasdaq. Prior to entering into the merger agreement with HealthTronics, Endocare terminated its merger agreement with Galil Medical (Yokneam, Israel) and the related private placement of its common stock. In November 2008, Endocare agreed to buy privately held Galil in an all-stock deal. The exchange offer is expected to be completed in 3Q09, HealthTronics said.

• Medtronic (Minneapolis) reported that it has bought substantially all glucose monitoring assets from PreciSense (Horsholm, Denmark), a development company focused on continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. According to the company, CGM is one of the most significant advances in diabetes management technology because it shows people their changing glucose levels in real-time.

• OrthoMEMS (Menlo Park, California) has been granted an exclusive option from the Cleveland Clinic to expand its license to include all fields of use. The option is exercisable upon the satisfaction of certain undisclosed conditions. In the event conditions are met, OrthoMEMS would obtain worldwide exclusive rights to develop and commercialize its core sensing and wireless technology for all medical and industrial applications. Currently, OrthoMEMS has an exclusive license for spine and orthopedics uses.

• Pulmonx (Palo Alto, California), a company focused on advancing therapies for patients with emphysema, reported that it has acquired all of the assets of Emphasys Medical (Redwood City, California), including its endobronchial valve (EBV) technology platform and associated intellectual property. Pulmonx has now assumed global sales, marketing, customer support, and future development programs of the Emphasys EBV (formerly known as Zephyr EBV). Financial terms were not disclosed. Pulmonx submitted an FDA 510(k) application earlier this year to market the Chartis System in the U.S. The company said it hopes to receive its FDA clearance and begin marketing in the fall. Also, a CE mark application has been submitted and the company expects to launch the Chartis System in Europe by the end of 2009.

• St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota) has acquired the intellectual property and non-cash assets of Northstar Neuroscience (Seattle) for a payment of $2 million. Northstar is focused on developing cortical stimulation therapies for the treatment of major depressive disorder, stroke and other neurological disorders. The company developed the Renova Cortical Stimulation System, an investigational device designed to deliver targeted stimulation to the cerebral cortex. With this transaction, St. Jude Medical acquires Northstar’s intellectual property portfolio, clinical study data, device designs, and manufacturing equipment. The transaction is expected to be neutral to St. Jude Medical’s consolidated earnings per share in 2009.