A Medical Device Daily

Spectranetics (Colorado Springs) reported it has completed closing its bid to acquire the endovascular business of Kensey Nash (Exton, Pennsylvania) and has begun commercialization of the acquired products. The deal consists of a $10 million initial payment, $8 million in future product development milestone payments, and a $6 million milestone associated with cumulative sales.

The actual closing date was May 30.

The company first reported interest in acquiring the endovascular business in mid-May (Medical Device Daily, May 14, 2008).

The endovascular unit, which made up about 11% of Kensey's third-quarter sales, includes the ThromCat, QuickCat and SafeCross products, all of which are used to treat blood clots and blockages in arteries. These products generated sales of $5.1 million in 2007. Kensey Nash will continue to manufacture the ThromCat and SafeCross products for an initial term of three years, which may be extended.

Originally both companies reported the closing would be on June 30.

John Schulte, Spectranetics' president/CEO, said: "The closing was completed ahead of schedule and integration activities have already been initiated. Training of many of our vascular intervention sales professionals has been completed and we look forward to marketing the acquired products and maximizing their potential with the manufacturing and product development support of Kensey Nash."

Spectranetics makes the excimer laser which treats complex cardiovascular conditions by photo-ablating multiple lesion types into tiny particles that are absorbed into the blood stream.

Kensey Nash is a medical technology company providing solutions and technologies for a wide range of medical procedures.

In other dealmaking activity:

• Roche (Basel, Switzerland) and DxS (Surrey, UK) have signed an exclusive distribution agreement for the DxS TheraScreen K-RAS Mutation Test and TheraScreen EGFR 29 Mutation Test. The tests are intended, when considered with other clinically relevant factors, to aid doctors in identifying suitable patients likely to benefit from a specific cancer therapy based on their mutation status.

Roche is granted exclusive world-wide distribution rights for the K-RAS Test, which has CE Mark certification in Europe. For the EGFR test, which also has CE Mark certification, Roche is granted exclusive distribution rights for all global markets except the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Hong Kong.

The TheraScreen K-RAS Mutation Test was the first clinically validated, CE-Mark certified companion diagnostic for tumor-specific mutations in patients with colorectal cancer. The TheraScreen EGFR 29 Test is designed to enable detection of 29 of the most common somatic mutations in the EGFR gene and detects mutations with greater sensitivity than sequencing.

DxS is a UK-based personalized medicine company providing molecular diagnostics to aid doctors and drug companies in selecting therapies for patients.

Roche is a developer of products in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics.

• AmeriChoice (Minneapolis) a UnitedHealth Group (Minnetonka, Minnesota) company, reported it had received all necessary regulatory approvals for its acquisition of Unison Health Plans and the transaction has closed.

Unison facilitates access to high-quality, cost-effective health care for traditionally underserved populations through its participation in state Medicaid, State Children's Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP), Adult Basic Programs and Medicare Special Needs Plans.

Unison provides government-sponsored health plan coverage to nearly 380,000 people through a network of 28,000 independent health care providers and a workforce of almost 1,000 employees. Current Unison management and staff will remain in place, and the company will operate under its current name as a subsidiary of AmeriChoice.

The purchase price and other financial terms were not disclosed for this all-cash transaction.

• Tenet Healthcare (Dallas) reported that a company subsidiary has completed the sale of the Encino campus of Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center (Los Angeles) a 151-bed acute care hospital. The sales price was not disclosed. Both the Encino and Tarzana campuses of Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center have been slated for divestiture since the 1Q04.

Separately, the company also reported that Prime Healthcare has entered into definitive agreements to acquire two additional Tenet hospitals in California 167-bed Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center, and 64-bed San Dimas Community Hospital (California).

The transactions are subject to customary regulatory approvals and are expected to be completed in approximately 30 days.

Tenet Healthcare, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates acute care hospitals and related ancillary health care businesses, which include ambulatory surgery centers and diagnostic imaging centers.