A Medical Device Daily

Public Consulting Group (PCG; Boston) said it has acquired Eclipse Solutions (Sacramento, California), an information technology consulting firm focused on the public sector.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Eclipse specializes in helping state and local governments manage IT resources, including project management, project oversight, technology architecture, management consulting, and infrastructure support services.

“Eclipse’s expertise is a great strategic fit with our extensive management consulting experience with state and local health, human services, and other government agencies,” said Bill Mosakowski, president/CEO of PCG. “The combination of Eclipse’s expertise in IT management and PCG’s in-depth knowledge of state and local government operations will greatly benefit our public clients as they strive to make best use of available funds to maximize the services provided to their client populations.”

PCG offers full-service management consulting services and technology to public sector health and human services and education clients.

In other dealmaking activity:

• Roche NimbleGen (Madison, Wisconsin) and Affymetrix (Santa Clara, California) have expanded the terms of the license to a number of Affymetrix patents originally granted in October 2006.

According to the companies, the expanded license now provides certain diagnostic rights for array-based DNA copy number analysis and array-based resequencing in addition to covering the manufacture, use and sale of nucleic acid microarrays and related products and services in the research field.

Financial terms of the expanded license were not disclosed.

Roche NimbleGen makes a suite of DNA microarrays, consumables, instruments and services. It produces high-density arrays of long oligo probes intended to provide greater information content and higher data quality necessary for studying the full diversity of genomic and epigenomic variation.

• Alphatec Holdings (Carlsbad, California) reported that its subsidiary, Alphatec Spine and Stout Medical Group (Perkasie, Pennsylvania) have entered into a license agreement giving Alphatec a worldwide license to develop and sell Stout’s expandable interbody/vertebral body replacement technology. According to the company, the technology uses a unique geometric design configuration that can be expanded once the device is placed into the disc space and is designed to be used in percutaneous, mini-open and open delivery procedures.

Alphatec will pay an up-front license fee to Stout, as well as regulatory and sales milestone payments that could begin to be achieved this year, and a royalty payment based on net sales of licensed products, with minimum annual royalties beginning in 2009.

The agreement expires in 2028. Alphatec has the right to sublicense the technology to third parties as well as terminate the agreement for any reason upon 90 days prior written notice to Stout.

Alphatec makes products for the surgical treatment of spine disorders.

• Medical Properties Trust (MPT; Birmingham, Alabama) reported an agreement to sell the real estate assets of three inpatient rehabilitation facilities to Vibra Healthcare (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania) for $90 million.

The sale is expected to close as early as March 31 but no later than June 30.

The properties to be sold are currently operated by Vibra and are located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Marlton, New Jersey, and Fresno, California, MPT said. Vibra plans to resell the properties to a third-party.

Vibra will also pay a one-time $7 million early termination fee to MPT – resulting in incremental funds from operations of about 13 cents a share – and make a $10 million early principal payment on the balance of its existing MPT loan, reducing the total amount outstanding on the loan to about $19 million. MPT said it expects to realize a gain on the sale of about $9.2 million – 17 cents a share – and a one-time charge of about $9.4 million – 18 cents a share – to write off the unbilled straight-line rent associated with the properties.

MPT also said it has agreed to buy and lease to Vibra, for an aggregate of about $55 million, three existing post acute care facilities from two unrelated third parties. Vibra is obligated to offer MPT these additional properties at prearranged terms. If both the sale and new property transactions are consummated, the overall percentage of MPT’s total investments represented by Vibra assets would decrease to about 20% from 24%, the company noted.

• Grubb & Ellis Healthcare REIT (Santa Ana, California) said it has acquired the Fort Road Medical Building in St. Paul, Minnesota from Fort Road Associates Limited Partnership, which was represented by Mark Davis of Davis Real Estate Services Group. LaSalle Bank primarily provided financing.

Located on about one acre of land, the Fort Road Medical Building is a four-story multi-tenant office structure, consisting of about 50,000 square feet of gross leasable area, the company said. Built in 1981, the building is fully integrated into the United Hospital and Children’s Hospital and Clinics of Minnesota, St. Paul campus, and is connected to nearby hospitals and medical office buildings by underground tunnels. The building is also physically connected to the apartment and condo complex, Irvine Park Towers and Condominiums. The property is 90% leased.