• Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) completed the sale of its Fluid Management and Venous Access businesses to Avista Capital Partners for $425 million in cash. With these sell-offs, the company has divested five non-strategic units it had planned to divest. It said it expects to record an after-tax gain of about $120 million in 1Q08 in connection with the transaction. Ron Sparks, an Avista healthcare industry advisor, will become CEO and chairman of the new company. Dave McClellan, president of Boston Scientific's oncology business, will become president of the new company.

• Baird Capital Partners (BCP), the U.S.-based buyout fund of Baird Private Equity, reported acquiring Ellman International (Oceanside, New York), a manufacturer of surgical devices used in medical, dental and veterinary procedures in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Co-investors include Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Rick Epstein, Ellman International management, and CIT Healthcare, which provided senior debt for the deal. BCP appointed Rick Epstein as Ellman's new CEO.

• Elekta (Stockholm, Sweden), a provider of clinical solutions for radiation therapy and radiosurgery, said it has agreed to acquire CMS (St. Louis) for about $75 million in cash. Transaction close is expected this month. CMS develops radiation therapy planning solutions and supports more than 1,500 clinical sites worldwide.

• I-Flow (Lake Forest, California) reported completing the $25 million acquisition of AcryMed (Portland), a developer of infection control and wound healing products, the deal first disclosed in December. AcryMed developed the nanoparticle treatment process for the silver coating on I-Flow's ON-Q SilverSoaker catheters with SilvaGard and has been treating the catheters since I-Flow developed the product line in 2005. AcryMed will also manufacture for I-Flow a new line of silver transparent wound-site dressings.

• Inverness Medical Innovations (IMI; Waltham, Massachusetts) completed its acquisition of BBI Holdings (Cardiff, UK), a manufacturer of non-invasive lateral flow tests. The purchase price consisted of cash of about £63.2 million, ($123.2 million), and about 251,300 shares of IMI common stock. Existing options to purchase BBI stock have been assumed and have converted into options to purchase about 360,000 shares of IMI common stock. BBI Holdings is a holding company whose subsidiary BBInternational puts gold to work as a research and testing tool for hospitals, universities, and pharmas.

• MBF Healthcare Acquisition (MBH; Coral Gables, Florida), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, agreed to acquire Critical Homecare Solutions Holdings (CHS; Conshohocken, Pennsylvania), a provider of home infusion therapy and specialty infusion service, MBH will acquire all of the outstanding capital stock of CHS, a Kohlberg & Co. portfolio company, for $420 million. With completion of the acquisition, MBH will change its name to Critical Homecare Solutions, and expects its common stock to continue trading publicly on the American Stock Exchange. MBH said it anticipates completing the acquisition in 2Q08.

• Medrad (Warrendale, Pennsylvania) has agreed to buy Possis Medical (Minneapolis) in a cash tender offer for $19.50 a share, or about $361 million, representing a premium of about 39% over Possis' average closing price for the 30 days prior to the offer. The offer is to be followed by a second-step merger in which any untendered Possis shares would be converted into the right to receive the same price per share as shareholders who tendered in the cash offer. Medrad provides contrast injection systems used to diagnose cardiovascular and other diseases. Possis provides mechanical thrombectomy devices used to treat narrowed or blocked arteries and veins.

• Merit Medical Systems (South Jordan, Utah), a manufacturer of disposable devices used primarily in cardiology and radiology procedures, reported completing two previously disclosed transactions. In November, Merit reported that it entered a non-binding term sheet to acquire cardiac and peripheral catheter platform assets from Micrus Endovascular (San Jose, California). And in January the company finalized a definitive asset purchase and supply agreement effecting the transaction. Additionally, the company said that is has entered into an agreement with Timothy Clark, MD, to acquire intellectual property rights relating to U.S. Patent #7,087,060, "Methods for Obtaining Hemostasis of Percutaneous Wounds."

• Roche (Basel, Switzerland) completed the tender offer for the outstanding shares of Ventana Medical Systems (Tucson, Arizona). With expiration of the subsequent offering period, Rocket Acquisition, a subsidiary of Roche, had purchased a total of about 34.55 million shares of Ventana common stock, about 93.7% of Ventana's outstanding shares. All shares tendered in the offer, which values Ventana shares at $89.50 each ($3.4 billion) have been accepted, and the consideration for all such shares has been paid or will promptly be paid.