• Applera (Norwalk, Connecticut) reported that the registration statement relating to the proposed separation of its Celera (Rockville, Maryland) business has been declared effective by the SEC, with the separation expected to be completed at 12:01 a.m. EDT, on July 1, subject to satisfaction of certain conditions, including receipt of certain consents and listing of the Celera common stock on the Nasdaq stock market. As previously described, the separation will be accomplished by means of redemption of all of the outstanding shares of Applera - Celera Group tracking stock. In the redemption, each outstanding share of Celera Group tracking stock will be redeemed in exchange for one share of common stock of Celera Corp., presently a wholly owned subsidiary of Applera. Celera is a diagnostics business delivering personalized disease management. Berkeley HeartLab (Burlingame, California), a subsidiary of Celera, offers services to predict cardiovascular disease risk and optimize patient management. Celera also commercializes a wide range of molecular diagnostic products through its strategic alliance with Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, Illinois) and has licensed other relevant diagnostic technologies developed to provide personalized disease management in cancer and liver diseases. Applera is selling its other operating group, Applied Biosystems (Foster City, California), to Invitrogen (Carlsbad, California) in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $6.7 billion which is expected to close this fall.

• Escalon Medical (Wayne, Pennsylvania) said its wholly owned subsidiary, Drew Scientific (Wayne), acquired JAS Diagnostics (Miami). Drew purchased 100% of the outstanding shares of JAS for about $1.2 million in cash and $800,000 in notes payable. JAS is a privately-held manufacturer of class I and II in vitro diagnostics (IVD) reagents that markets its products to physician, reference, hospital and veterinary laboratories throughout the world. JAS was established in 2000 and specializes in the manufacture of a broad range of liquid stable, diagnostics chemistry reagents used in IVD tests. Drew Scientific provides instrumentation and consumables for the diagnosis and monitoring of medical disorders in the areas of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and hematology, as well as veterinary hematology and blood chemistry.

• Kardia Health Systems (Rochester, Minnesota) said it will expand its cardiology platforms with the acquisition of Freeland Systems (Westminster, Colorado), a provider of multi-modality medical imaging and reporting software solutions. Freeland Systems has been developing digital imaging technology for cardiac ultrasound since 1980 and has a worldwide installed base of more than 2,000 systems. Kardia said that with this acquisition, it will be able to offer customers a complete web-based clinical, diagnostic and reporting solution for end-to-end management of multiple imaging modalities.

• Pediatrix Medical Group (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) reported it has acquired a large pediatric cardiology practice with principal offices in Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida, that provides services to patients in communities in western and central Florida. The acquisition was completed with cash, and the practice is expected to contribute to Pediatrix's earnings per share immediately.