• Acacia Research (North Beach, California) reported that its subsidiary, Acacia Patent Acquisition (North Beach), has acquired a patent relating to surgical catheter technology. Financial terms were not disclosed. The patented technology relates to surgical devices, such as percutaneously insert-able catheters and cannulas used to access the circulatory system. These devices can be used in cardiology and other surgical procedures.

• Acrongenomics (Geneva, Switzerland) said it has acquired a 10.9% interest in Molecular Vision (London), the value of that stake not disclosed. Molecular Vision said that the acquired cash will be used for technology development. The company says it is developing what it describes as “low-cost, easy-to-use, credit-card sized devices for medical testing designed to extend the in-house tools available to the general practitioner. It said that the devices are being developed to allow “near patient” quantitative diagnosis, with focus on areas of high disease burden.

• Angiotech Pharmaceuticals (Vancouver, British Columbia) and Symphony Medical (Laguna Hills, California) reported entering an exclusive licensing agreement to employ one of Angiotech’s PEG-based biomaterials as part of a prophylactic therapy envisioned to mitigate the onset of post-operative atrial fibrillation (POAF) for patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting and cardiac valve surgeries. Symphony has been developing non-destructive biocompatible polymer therapies to treat cardiac conditions such as atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure since 2003. Angiotech has been granted an equity position in Symphony in exchange for the exclusive license of Angiotech’s technology in the field of POAF. Angiotech also will receive a royalty on end-user product sales should the product receive regulatory approval and is commercialized.

• Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) reported completing the sale of its cardiac and vascular surgery business to Getinge Group (Stockholm, Sweden) for $750 million in cash. The deal, first disclosed in November, was conditional on the approval of competition authorities concerned. Getinge said that the competition authorities now have approved the transaction. The group said it would use the acquisition to establish a base for building a global cardiac surgery business. The combined revenues of the two businesses in 2006 were about $275 million.

• Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS; New York) and Avista Capital Partners reported that Avista completed its acquisition of Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical Imaging (Billerica Massachusetts), a supplier of imaging products for nuclear and ultrasound cardiovascular diagnostic imaging procedures. The $525 million cash deal was first disclosed in December.

• Micrus Endovascular (San Jose, California) and privately held Genesis Medical Interventional (Redwood City, California) said that they have entered into an agreement granting Micrus the rights to Genesis’ F.A.S.T. Funnel Catheter and clot retrieval system for the treatment of ischemic stroke. The transaction includes an initial upfront payment, future development milestone payments and an undisclosed royalty on potential future products sales. The amounts of these payments were not disclosed. The Genesis system is a line of medical devices comprised of a funnel deployed at the distal end of the catheter through which a physician can deploy a clot retrieval system with an umbrella or parachute-like device. This design harnesses a patient’s blood pressure to provide the sealing force for occlusion, Genesis says. Clots and other debris are removed and the device is then collapsed and removed from the patient.

• NewCardio (San Jose, California) reported the closing of a share exchange agreement with Marine Park Holdings (New York) whereby NewCardio is now a public company by way of reverse merger. New Cardio’s common stock is currently quoted for trading on the Over the Counter Bulletin Board under the symbol NWCI.OB. With completion of the agreement, the company said it completed a private placement financing of $8.2 million of 10% redeemable, non-voting Series A convertible preferred stock, plus warrants. Marine Park acquired all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of NewCardio. Marine Park assumed the operating business of NewCardio and changed its name to NewCardio. NewCardio’s software and hardware products and services are intended to improve the diagnosis and monitoring of cardiovascular disease, as well as cardiac safety assessment of drugs under development. NewCardio said it will compete in two large segments of the cardiovascular diagnostics market: cardiac safety in drug development, and diagnostics.

• Synovis Life Technologies (St. Paul, Minnesota) reported that it will sell substantially all assets of its interventional business to Heraeus Vadnais (Vadnais Heights, Minnesota), and related entities, for $29.5 million in cash, plus assumption of certain liabilities. Synovis said it expects the spin-off to give it a pretax gain of $11 million to $12 million. Heraeus Vadnais specializes in medical components.