A Medical Device Daily

CytoCore (Chicago) reported that it has reached an agreement with Amsino International (Pomona, California) in which Amsino will direct worldwide sales of CytoCore's SoftPAP cervical cell collector kits through its channel of distribution partners.

Where applicable, such as China, Amsino will sell CytoCore's products directly to laboratories, physicians and other medical providers through a direct sales force.

Robert McCullough Jr., CEO of CytoCore, said, "This agreement with Amsino will significantly enhance SoftPAP's presence in the market and help generate increased sales. Amsino is a leading distributor of medical devices and has strong relationships with well-recognized end user distributors including PSS, McKesson, and Henry Schein, among others."

He added, "Our partnership with Amsino is a significant step up in helping CytoCore gain traction in expanding the sales of the SoftPAP cervical cell collector kit which will provide value individually to the patient, physician and laboratory during the collection and analysis of a woman's pap examination. We look forward to working with Amsino to explore opportunities to leverage additional areas of their expertise with regard to CytoCore's present and future product lines.

"Our recently announced partnership with Synermed Select Partners (Westfield, Indiana) and their preservative provides CytoCore the ability to offer in kit form' a significant upgrade to the SoftPAP collector," he said. "Our new product combination was developed in direct response to requests from several of our domestic and international partners. This new relationship with Amsino gives us the marketing and distribution reach to bring our SoftPAP product offering to those domestic and international markets where we know it will be competitive and is needed, and the combination should enhance our current capital raising efforts to fund our future growth."

Under the agreement, Amsino will be responsible for transportation and warehousing logistics, order management, customer service, quality assurance and bill collection.

Phil Kelsey, Amsino president of global sales, said, "We believe the unique SoftPAP cervical cell collector kit product will be accepted by health professionals and patients worldwide because of the diagnostic accuracy and the significant reduction of discomfort associated with current methods of collecting a pap sample."

In other agreements/contracts news:

Terason (Burlington, Massachusetts), producer of Laptop Ultrasound imaging systems, said that it has reached an agreement with SenoRx (Irvine, California) to provide its Terason t3000 ultrasound for the launch of an additional model of the SenoSonix System.

Like the original SenoSonix, the new model is an integration of SenoRx's EnCor breast biopsy system with ultrasound imaging. This new version of the device incorporates a microminiaturization ultrasound technology that combines personal computing power and flexibility designed, developed and marketed by Terason.

Montefiore Medical Center's (Yonkers, New York) IT subsidiary, Emerging Health Information Technology, has signed a multi-year hosting agreement with North Shore-LIJ Health System (Long Island, New York), the largest healthcare provider in New York State.

Emerging Health's Data Management Center will provide support for a portion of North Shore-LIJ's computer network which includes 15 hospitals, 17 long-term care facilities, the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, three trauma centers, five home health agencies, a hospice network and dozens of outpatient centers across Queens, Long Island and Staten Island.

In addition to hosting, the two organizations will be working together to leverage resources and technology.