#8226; Alpha Innotech (San Leandro, California) reported that it has entered into a five-year strategic supplier alliance agreement with GE Healthcare (Waukesha, Wisconsin), a continuation and expansion of a previous agreement signed between the two companies in September 2005. Alpha Innotech will continue to manufacture and supply a full line of imaging systems to GE Healthcare to be sold worldwide under the GE brand in the life science research and drug discovery markets.

• ContextVision (Boston), a software imaging partner for medical imaging makers, reported an agreement with a global OEM for its GOPView CT image enhancement software. The OEM will incorporate GOPView CT into products that will be launched next year. According to the company, GOPView CT will reduce noise while enhancing fine structure and edges, producing an easier-to-read image.

• Endocare (Irvine, California) said it has entered into an agreement with its former CFO, John Cracchiolo. Cracchiolo's indemnification agreement was terminated in exchange for Endocare's waiver of certain severance and legal fee reimbursement rights. For September through December, the company said it had budgeted more than $875,000 for Cracchiolo's legal costs. As a result of this new agreement, Endocare is no longer obligated to pay any future legal costs for Cracchiolo. Endocare is focused on the development of minimally invasive technologies for tissue and tumor ablation.

• Hatch Medical (Duluth, Georgia), a medical device incubator and technology brokerage firm, said it has agreed to broker Evexar Medical's (Bromley, UK) self-expanding, collagen-based sealing technology, EndoSeal. According to Evexar, Endovascular aortic repair was introduced in the mid-1990s as a minimally invasive alternative to open surgical repair and was aimed at reducing many of the associated risks with current surgical techniques. Unfortunately, while aortic endografts provide numerous benefits, complications often follow this procedure, the company said. Evexar says its technology effectively seals gaps that can occur between an endograft and an irregular vessel wall, ensuring a secure seal and substantially reducing the possibility of endoleaks.

• National Jewish Health (Denver) and Roche Diagnostics (Mannheim, Germany) have reached an agreement in the field of molecular diagnostics, combining National Jewish's expertise in clinical testing and care for patients with respiratory and environmental diseases with Roche's technology to bring new diagnostic solutions to the market. The companies are collaborating initially on the introduction of a consumer product to test indoor air quality. The Family Air Care product will measure indoor allergens from cats, dogs, cockroaches, dust mites and mold.

• Novation (Irving, Texas), a healthcare contracting services company of VHA (Irving, Texas), University HealthSystem Consortium (Oak Brook, Illinois) and Provista (Irving, Texas), said it has added Guidant's (Indianapolis) Cardiac Rhythm Management devices to its Boston Scientific (Natick Massachusetts) agreement. The Cognis CRT-D and the Teligen ICD are among the world's smallest and thinnest high-energy devices at 32.5 cc and 31.5 cc respectively, while less than 10 mm thick. Both devices offer features based on substantial engineering advances, including extended battery longevity over previous company devices, self-correcting software and improved programming technology. The contract addition was effective Aug. 1, 2008.

• OmniSonics Medical Technologies (Wilmington, Massachusetts), a developer of devices for use in the treatment of vascular disease, reported entering into a licensing and development agreement with Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) for technology to treat thromboembolic acute ischemic stroke. The two companies will work jointly to develop an application of OmniSonics' OmniWave technology for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke. Boston Scientific will provide funding based on the achievement of development milestones and has an option to acquire the technology as well as exclusive rights to the intellectual property for the treatment of acute stroke.

• Premier Purchasing Partners (San Diego) reported that a new agreement has been awarded to Life Systems (Chesterfield, Missouri) for the disposition of used rigid and flexible endoscopes. The buy-back program provides members with an alternative to trading in endoscopes with original equipment manufacturers. The 36-month agreement, effective Sept. 1, is available to acute-care and continuum-of-care members of the Premier healthcare alliance. Premier also inked a new agreement for histology and cytology instruments, reagents and consumables with Richard-Allan Scientific Company, a business unit of Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, Massachusetts), which also includes Thermo Shandon products. The 36-month agreement is effective Oct. 1. Premier serves more than 2,000 U.S. hospitals and 53,000-plus other healthcare sites and is owned by not-for-profit hospitals.

• Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis) reported an exclusive agreement with IsoSciences (King of Prussia, Pennsylvania) to distribute isotopically labeled bioactive compounds and their metabolites through its Aldrich division. IsoSciences provides biological compounds and custom synthesis products. Aldrich, provider of Isotec Stable Isotopes, makes stable isotope products for biomolecular NMR, proteomics, metabolic and MRI research.