A Medical Device Daily

Medical aesthetics company BioForm Medical (San Mateo, California) reported that it has acquired Advanced Cosmetic Intervention (ACI; Denver) and its associated technology rights for $12 million cash, plus future royalties and a potential sales-related milestone.

BioForm said this acquisition provides it with a commercially available technology for local nerve ablation.

ACI's device, sometimes also referred to as the GFX device, is FDA-cleared to create radio frequency (RF) heat lesions in nerve tissue. The ACI device uses minimally invasive bi-polar RF energy selectively to weaken nerve signal transduction with durable effects. The use of this technology on nerves that control the muscles of the forehead may reduce the appearance of frown lines, or glabellar furrows, the company said.

BioForm said it expects to conduct clinical studies specifically intended to support an application seeking FDA clearance to market the product for the treatment of frown lines. It also said it expects to seek a CE mark and certain other international registrations of the ACI device for aesthetics indications.

"We believe this new treatment will offer patients an attractive alternative therapy for the treatment of frown lines," said BioForm CEO Steven Basta. "We believe that the synergy of this product with our Radiesse dermal filler will be terrific."

BioForm said it will hire several of ACI's employees, and retain others as consultants to maintain continuity of the GFX program and to accelerate future product development and commercialization activities.

In addition to the up-front consideration, BioForm will pay a single-digit royalty to ACI. The company anticipates that significant positive revenue impact of this acquisition is not likely until it obtains clearance for the product for aesthetic applications, which it said it expects in calendar year 2009.

DxTech (Merrimack, New Hampshire), a company that says it is focused on putting diagnostic information in the hands of physicians in real time, has entered into a strategic alliance with Nicholas Piramal India (NPIL; Mumbai, India), one of the largest pharmaceutical and healthcare companies in India.

The alliance includes a license and development agreement relating to DxTech's technology, a distribution agreement and an agreement to establish a joint venture between the companies for the marketing and sales of the commercial product.

DxTech is developing the Vantix point-of-care (POC) diagnostics platform based on proprietary, electrochemical sensor technology. The companies said this combination will give the DxTech POC technology the capability to conduct simultaneous diagnostic immunoassays and general chemistries on a single cartridge delivering a broad range of tests.

DxTech assay and instrument development is being conducted at its facility in Merrimack, New Hampshire, while manufacturing of the proprietary sensor is being done at its facility in Cambridge, UK.

The alliance gives NPIL an exclusive license to DxTech's Vantix platform in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. In return, DxTech has received a multi-million-dollar up-front fee and will receive three additional product development fees, based on specific milestones over the next 18 to 36 months, each for at least $1 million.

DxTech also will receive long-term royalties based on gross sales in India, as well as its share of profits made by the joint venture. Nicholas Piramal will allocate dedicated employees to this relationship and will be investing additional funds for the joint venture's marketing and distribution costs.

In other dealmaking news:

• MedAssets (Alpharetta, Georgia) reported that it has agreed to acquire Accuro Healthcare Solutions (Dallas), a provider of revenue cycle management (RCM) solutions for hospitals and other healthcare providers. MedAssets said it believes this acquisition will expand its leadership position in hospital-based revenue cycle management by creating a broader and more comprehensive suite of RCM ASP-based software and service solutions.

MedAssets will pay about $207 million in cash and 8.85 million shares of MedAssets common stock, plus a deferred payment of $20 million due 12 months after closing. The total transaction value is about $350 million, inclusive of Accuro's $100 million debt outstanding.

Private equity investment firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, which owns about 80% of Accuro, will own about 12.8% of MedAssets common stock upon completion of the transaction and will be represented on the company's board by D. Scott Mackesy, a Welsh Carson general partner.

The companies said the combination creates a leading healthcare ASP-based technology and services provider with 2007 pro forma net revenue of about $278 million and pro forma adjusted EBITDA of about $87 million.

The combined companies' customer footprint is expected to total more than 3,300 U.S. hospitals, including more than 2,000 RCM hospital facility customers.

• Splinternet Holdings (Norwalk, Connecticut) said that it has closed its acquisition of privately held Vidiation, an Illinois-based, development-stage radiation detection marketing company. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Vidation will help to implement the commercialization of Splinternet's radiation detection architecture and alert system, DefenTect.

Vidiation was formed in 2006 to market advanced homeland security technologies Previously, Vidiation and Splinternet had cross-reseller agreements for radiation detection technologies.