A Medical Device Daily

PhotoMedex (Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania), a developer of excimer lasers and products for other dermatological applications, said it has acquired Photo Therapeutics (Cheshire, UK). The initial purchase price of $13 million was paid at closing, and up to an additional $7 million of consideration will be paid if certain gross profit milestones are met by June 30, the company noted.

The acquisition was funded through a convertible debt investment of $18 million by an investment fund managed by Perseus, which financed the $13 million purchase price of the acquisition, and a further $5 million in working capital at the closing of the acquisition.

Perseus will make up to an additional $7 million convertible debt investment in PhotoMedex in the event the additional consideration is payable. After the payment of roughly $2 million of transaction expenses associated with the acquisition and Perseus' investment, the company will have about $3 million remaining for use as working capital.

"We are very excited about completing this acquisition which further solidifies our dermatological franchise. In addition, we are very encouraged with the future growth prospects of Photo Therapeutics' products," said Jeff O'Donnell, president/CEO of PhotoMedex. "We believe having Perseus' support as our financial partner will allow us to focus on continuing to build market share in both the medical and consumer dermatology space."

Photo Therapeutics develops non-laser light devices and associated skin care products for the treatment of a range of clinical and aesthetic dermatological conditions. The company operates out of three primary business segments: Professional Devices, Home Use Devices and Skin Care Consumables.

In other dealmaking activity:

• Power Medical Interventions (Langhorne, Pennsylvania) said Monday it has received a $2.5 million payment from Intuitive Surgical (Sunnyvale, California) in connection with a license and development agreement the two companies signed in September.

The payment relates to a surgical stapling device being jointly developed by Power Medical and Intuitive, a company best known for its da Vinci robotic surgical systems.

The surgical stapling device being developed incorporates Power Medical's patented technology. It is being designed to attach to Intuitive's da Vinci surgical system for a broad array of surgical applications.

The companies have also entered into an exclusive reload supply agreement that calls for Power Medical to make and exclusively supply staple reload cartridges for the newly developed device.

• Hansen Medical (Mountain View, California) reported an equity investment in Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics (ACT; Laguna Beach, California), and the securing of exclusive rights to certain ACT intellectual property for certain robotic applications. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

ACT, a privately held company, is developing a technology designed to accurately measure the temperature in a lesion during cardiac ablation procedures.

Current manual technology used by physicians to control catheters in electrophysiology procedures can be limiting in several ways including, precise catheter control and stability, as well as the inability to accurately sense tissue temperature and its potential effect on lesion quality.

The Sensei Robotic Catheter System from Hansen has helped to advance the control of electrophysiologic mapping catheters by using flexible medical robotics technology to provide stable and predictable control of catheter movement inside the heart, according to the company.

• Lab21 (Cambridge, UK), a provider of state-of-the-art diagnostic products and services, reported that it has purchased the majority shareholding of Biotec Laboratories (Ipswich, UK), a clinical diagnostic company with particular emphasis on infectious diseases, most notably tuberculosis (TB). Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

As part of the sale, Lab21 also acquired Biotec's South African subsidiary, Biotec Laboratories SA (Johannesburg, South Africa) which is a joint venture with the Cape Biotech Trust.

Commenting on the acquisition, Graham Mullis, CEO of Lab21 said, "Our goal is to grow Lab21 into a major international diagnostics business through both organic growth and acquisition this transaction is an important step in that process. Our combined businesses, which have very complementary products, provide a great platform from which to build further our infectious disease and immunodiagnostic portfolio."

Biotec Laboratories has developed a portfolio of diagnostic products with a particular focus on infectious diseases. The two companies have had an ongoing commercial relationship, with Biotec Laboratories distributing some of Lab21 diagnostic products through its established global network of distributors in 80 countries worldwide. This will strengthen the Lab21 global reach, in particular in Africa and South America and will allow it to immediately access new markets for its products. Biotec Laboratories SA has developed proprietary phage amplification technology that is being used to develop rapid diagnostic and susceptibility tests for both active and Drug Resistant TB.

For the immediate future, Biotec Laboratories will continue to trade as a subsidiary of Lab21 group.

• Bausch & Lomb (B&L; Rochester, New York), the global eye health company, has entered into a licensing agreement with Santen Pharmaceutical (Osaka, Japan) for the development of certain intraocular lens (IOL) materials.

Under the terms of the agreement, B&L has obtained the rights to Santen's hydrophobic acrylic polymers, from which it may commercialize new IOLs for sale worldwide. Santen reserves the right for the use of these materials in the Japanese market. Financial terms will not be disclosed.

• Baxa (Englewood, Colorado), a developer of technology for the safe handling, packaging and administration of fluid medications, reported that it has acquired ForHealth Technologies (Daytona Beach, Florida), a healthcare robotics and software company, in a strategic expansion of its focus on health-system pharmacy automation and IV room productivity. Terms were not disclosed.

The ForHealth acquisition adds IntelliFill i.v. and IntelliFlowRx to the existing Baxa products for pharmacy operations management. IntelliFill i.v., a high-speed robotic system for preparing intravenous doses, is an industry standard for performance, cost savings and patient safety. IntelliFlowRx IV Room Workflow Manager promotes reductions in drug costs and waste, while ensuring patient safety and improving accuracy and efficiencies in manual IV compounding.

ForHealth operations will continue from its U.S. headquarters in Daytona Beach.