A Medical Device Daily
Cardinal Health (Dublin, Ohio) reported plans to acquire the assets of privately held Enturia (Leawood, Kansas) for $490 million, thereby expanding its holdings in infection prevention, a growing focus of regulators, such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The transaction includes Enturia’s line of infection prevention products sold under the ChloraPrep brand name. It is expected to close within 60 days.
ChloraPrep brand products are used in U.S. hospitals and surgery centers to disinfect the skin before surgical and vascular procedures to help prevent bloodstream and surgical site infections, two of the most common types of healthcare-associated infections among patients.
Separately, and as part of the company’s ongoing strategy to optimize its portfolio of products and services, Cardinal said it will pursue the sale of several smaller, non-core offerings within its Medical Products and Technologies segment.
It said that details concerning these other sales will be disclosed as there are significant developments.
Cardinal said the acquisition of Enturia will complement its infection prevention offerings by adding a “differentiated and proven” product line to the company’s Medical Products and Technologies segment. It said it plans to accelerate sales of ChloraPrep products to both hospital and alternate-care customers through its U.S. and international sales networks.
“ChloraPrep products bring a new capability and platform to our infection prevention line-up,” said R. Kerry Clark, CEO and chairman of Cardinal Health. “The technology is well aligned with our mission to improve patient safety.
Enturia was founded as Medi-Flex Hospital Products in 1985.
Over the past two years, the company’s revenue has grown more than 70% to about $140 million in 2007. The company has about 600 employees in Kansas, Texas and the UK.
The acquisition is expected to be slightly dilutive to Cardinal’s earnings for the remainder of FY08, accretive each year thereafter and expected to generate economic profit and returns above its cost of capital within the third fiscal year after the purchase.
In other dealmaking:
• Elekta (Stockholm, Sweden) reported completing its previously disclosed $75 million acquisition of CMS (St. Louis), a developer of radiation therapy planning solutions (Medical Device Daily, Feb. 20, 2008).
Elekta said that CMS will contribute to it’s strategy in radiation therapy planning and management of images and information.
CMS has 300 employees, with regional offices in Tampa, Florida; Freiburg, Germany; Tokyo; Sydney, Australia; and Shanghai, China.
• StemCells (Palo Alto, California) reported that it is no longer pursuing a possible acquisition of Progenitor Cell Therapy (PCT; Hackensack, New Jersey), a provider of cGMP-quality cell processing services.
The company had reported in early December that it was exploring such an acquisition and that PCT had agreed to a period of exclusivity to allow for due diligence and negotiations. However, the parties were unable to reach agreement on terms and conditions, and have terminated discussions.
In consideration of the exclusivity period, StemCells agreed to make a secured loan of up to $3.8 million to PCT, of which $1 million was lent. This loan will be repaid and retired on its terms.
PCT will continue to provide various cell processing services to StemCells under an existing contract.
StemCells is a clinical-stage biotech focused on the development of cell-based therapeutics to treat diseases of the central nervous system and liver. The company’s product development programs seek to repair or repopulate CNS and liver tissue that has been damaged or lost as a result of disease or injury.