• Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) has spun off a new company, dubbed Navilyst Medical (Marlborough, Massachusetts), its assets consisting of Boston Sci's old fluid management and vascular access business, acquired by private equity firm Avista Capital Partners in February for $425 million. Navilyst said its fluid management business, including the NAMIC line of products, enjoys a leading global market share. Its vascular access products include devices designed to provide access to the blood stream for patients requiring intravenous antibiotics, nutrition, chemo-therapy, blood sampling and hemodialysis. The company's PASV Technology is designed to automatically close after infusion, disconnection or aspiration, and remain closed during normal pressure fluctuations, reducing the risk of complications including catheter-related bloodstream infections. Navilyst is a $180 million company with 800 employees. The company sells its products globally, though its main U.S. manufacturing facility is located in Glens Falls, New York. Dave McClellan, president of Navilyst, said the company will be launching several new products within the next year.

Covidien (Mansfield, Massachusetts) reported the acquisition of technology assets from CardioDigital (Portland, Oregon), a company that develops advanced signal processing techniques for patient monitoring. The technology will be used by Covidien's Respiratory and Monitoring Solutions business unit. Covidien said it reflects the company's "commitment to making investments in clinically relevant product innovations designed to improve patient outcomes." Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. "The acquisition of CardioDigital's technology is an exciting opportunity for us to strengthen our patient monitoring business as we partner with our customers to improve outcomes. We believe that the technology will enable significant improvements in current patient monitoring techniques, resulting in enhanced patient care and safety," said Joe Almeida, president of the Medical Devices segment at Covidien. CardioDigital's technology will complement Respiratory and Monitoring Solution's Nellcor pulse oximetry platform, Covidien said. "This acquisition sets the stage for more of these types of growth opportunities in the future," Almeida said. Covidien makes a diverse range of products in four segments: medical devices, imaging solutions, pharmaceutical products and medical supplies. CardioDigital provides commercialization of near-to-market technologies developed by its research organization, CardioDigital Ltd., in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Datascope (Montvale, New Jersey) reported that it has completed the sale of its vascular closure business to St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota), including all of the assets related to its VasoSeal, On-Site, and X-Site devices and its collagen operation. Datascope will receive $21 million in cash at closing, and $3 million upon expiration of an 18 month indemnification period. The carrying value of the assets and other direct expenses related to the sale was about $23.7 million. This transaction completes Datascope's plan to exit the vascular closure market and phase out its Interventional Products business. In February 2007, Datascope sold its ProGuide chronic dialysis catheter product line to Merit Medical Systems (South Jordan, Utah) for $3 million, plus a royalty on future ProGuide sales. The sale of vascular closure assets to St. Jude was separate from the exploration of strategic alternatives, reported in June, being conducted by the company's financial advisor, Lehman Brothers. Datascope said it was approached by several parties that were considering making a bid for the company after the $202 million sale of its patient monitoring business to Mindray Medical International (Shenzhen, China) was disclosed in March. "We are pleased to complete this transaction, which enhances our focus on Datascope's continuing businesses, Cardiac Assist and InterVascular," said company COO Dr. Antonino Laudani, adding, "We will continue our efforts to optimize Datascope's asset portfolio and drive value for our shareholders." Datascope develops products for interventional cardiology, cardiovascular and vascular surgery and critical care.

Memry (Bethel, Connecticut), a company focused on engineering of nitinol-based and polymer-based next-generation products for the device industry, reported that it has set Sept. 17 as the date for the special meeting of shareholders to vote on the approval and adoption of the agreement and plan of merger by Memry, SAES Getters (Milan, Italy) and SAES Devices Corp. in which SAES Devices Corp. will be merged into Memry with Memry as the surviving corporation. In 2007, Memry reported revenues of $51.7 million, a gross margin of $16.6 million, an operating income equal to $1.3 million and net income of $0.3 million. The company has no debt. Headquartered in Connecticut and with two manufacturing facilities in Menlo Park, California, Memry employs about 350. Memry's medical device products include stent components, catheter components, guidewires, laparoscopic surgical sub-assemblies and orthopedic instruments as well as complex, multi-layer polymer extrusions used for guidewires, catheters, delivery systems and other interventional medical devices. The meeting will be held at Memry's headquarters in Connecticut.