A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Natus Medical (San Carlos, California) said it has agreed to acquire SonaMed (Waltham, Massachusetts), a private company that makes the Clarity Screener and associated disposable supplies to help medical practitioners screen newborns for hearing loss.

Natus will acquire all outstanding shares of SonaMed capital stock in a cash transaction; however, specific financial terms were not disclosed. The boards of both companies have approved the deal, expected to close in roughly 40 days.

"SonaMed has successfully created a distinct presence in the domestic newborn hearing screening market," said Jim Hawkins, president/CEO of Natus. "We believe SonaMed is a very well-run company that has been consistently profitable for many years and we expect this acquisition to be accretive to earnings per share in the first full quarter of ownership."

He added, "We expect the Clarity screener to fill out our product line in newborn hearing screening."

DonaMed reported revenue of $3.5 million for its year ended Dec. 31, 2007.

Natus provides products used for the screening, detection, treatment, monitoring and tracking of common medical ailments such as hearing impairment, neurological dysfunction, epilepsy, sleep disorders, and newborn care.

In other dealmaking activity:

• Boston Scientific (BSX; Natick, Massachusetts) and Surgi-Vision (Baltimore) reported a licensing and development deal for MRI-safe technology.

Boston Scientific said it will gain access to Surgi-Vision's development capabilities and will obtain a license to its intellectual property for potential use in its implantable cardiac devices. The two companies will work jointly to develop a commercial application of Surgi-Vision's technology.

The two companies entered into a separate licensing and development agreement in the area of neuromodulation in December 2005.

Surgi-Vision develops MRI technologies, focused on MRI-safety and MRI-guided therapeutic interventions for neuromodulation, cardiac EP and localized delivery of cell/drug therapies.

• InSight Health Services Holdings (Lake Forest, California) said it has sold five diagnostic imaging centers to RadNet Management (Los Angeles).

The five Southern California-based centers, in Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Encino and Valencia, are part of an $8.5 million purchase agreement involving six centers in the Los Angeles area. The sale of the sixth center, in Van Nuys, is pending third-party approvals, the companies said. The operations of the five centers produce about $7 million in annual revenue.

RadNet said a portion of its recent incremental term loan from GE Healthcare Financial Services funded the cash purchase. Insight and RadNet provide diagnostic imaging services.

• Tenet Healthcare (Dallas) and the University of Southern California (USC; Los Angeles) have agreed to a non-binding letter of intent for Tenet to acquire USC University Hospital and USC Norris Cancer Hospital (both Los Angeles). Financial terms were not disclosed.

USC filed a lawsuit in August 2006 seeking to terminate its relationship with Tenet. In November 2007 Tenet filed a counterclaim against the university seeking monetary damages. USC and Tenet seek to resolve the lawsuit by agreeing on sale terms for the two hospitals.

A Tenet subsidiary operates USC University Hospital, a 411-bed acute care hospital and the USC Norris Cancer Hospital, a 60-bed cancer hospital. Both hospitals are managed under an agreement with USC.

Tenet owns and operates acute-care hospitals and ancillary healthcare businesses, including ambulatory surgery centers and diagnostic imaging centers.

• ProMetic Life Sciences (Mount-Royal, Quebec) has signed a letter of intent to acquire the common stock holding of the American Red Cross (ARC; Washington) in Pathogen Removal and Diagnostic Technologies (PRDT), the joint venture established by ProMetic and ARC in 2002 to develop products for diagnosing and reducing pathogens in blood, blood derivatives, biopharmaceuticals and other biological products.

The terms of the deal call for an ongoing royalty stream to ARC, based on income derived from PRDT technology. In exchange, ProMetic will raise its ownership position in PRDT to 77% by acquiring ARC's 51% stake in PRDT. The remaining 23% will continue to be held by the academic co-founders.

ProMetic said the transaction is a natural progression following commercialization of the P-Capt filter and the prion reduction resin that was fully licensed to ProMetic.

ARC will continue to hold its preferred stock and maintain representation on the board.

• The Center for Diagnostic Imaging (CDI; Minneapolis) and Radiology Consultants of Washington (RCW; Seattle) reported a merger agreement that will combine their eight Washington outpatient imaging centers.

CDI and RCW together offer imaging services, including MRI, CT, ultrasound, X-ray and nuclear medicine. RCW and CDI will continue to operate under their respective brands, but together have eight centers throughout the Puget Sound area in the communities of Bellevue, Everett, Federal Way, Kirkland, Lakewood, Mountlake Terrace, Renton and Seattle.

CDI provides outpatient radiology imaging services and owns and operates 50 diagnostic imaging centers in eight states.