A Medical Device Daily

Zoll Medical (Chelmsford, Massachusetts), a manufacturer of resuscitation devices and related software solutions, and Laerdal Medical (Stavanger, Norway), a Norwegian medical device maker, and its U.S. subsidiary Laerdal Medical (Wappinger Falls, New York), have entered into technology licensing agreements.

Zoll is licensing to Laerdal non-exclusive worldwide rights under patents owned by or licensed to Zoll covering feedback in connection with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and Laerdal is granting to Zoll options to license similar rights under patents owned by Laerdal.

CPR feedback, marketed as Real CPR Help by Zoll and QCPR by Laerdal, is designed to help improve CPR quality during manual CPR by providing rescuers with immediate “real time” feedback related to compression depth and rate.

In addition to the technology agreements, the companies have also agreed to cooperate in activities to further the development of the overall market for CPR feedback technology, including activities such as funding of clinical studies, work to promote healthcare industry standards, and educational activities aimed at fostering CPR quality improvement.

Richard A. Packer, president/CEO of Zoll, said that “In addition to a modest royalty stream, this agreement represents an important and constructive business arrangement for Zoll, and ... we believe this cooperation with Laerdal will further more widespread adoption of CPR feedback.”

In other dealmaking news:

• HealthSouth (Birmingham, Alabama) said it has agreed to sell its corporate campus, which consists of a 200,000 square-foot corporate headquarters building, the 85-acre corporate campus on which the headquarters sits, and the 19-acre tract of land contiguous to the corporate campus that includes an incomplete 13-story building formerly called the Digital Hospital to Daniel (Birmingham, Alabama), a real estate organization, for $43.5 million in cash and a 40% residual interest in the Digital Hospital.

HealthSouth said the agreement is another step in its plan, disclosed in August 2006, to deleverage the company and reposition it for growth as a pure-play, post-acute care provider with a focus on inpatient rehabilitation. Proceeds from this transaction, scheduled to close by the end of the first quarter, will be used to pay down a portion of the company’s long-term debt.

HealthSouth entered into a long-term lease arrangement to maintain its corporate headquarters on the corporate campus. Additional details were not disclosed.

• Cogdell Spencer (Charlotte, North Carolina) reported that it executed a merger agreement to acquire 100% of the stock of Marshall Erdman and Associates (Erdman; Madison, Wisconsin), a design-build firm that specializes in the planning, designing and building of healthcare facilities throughout the U.S. The value of the transaction is $247 million, subject to adjustment.

Erdman will operate as a subsidiary of Cogdell Spencer. The transaction is expected to close by the end of February.

By integrating Erdman’s platform with Cogdell Spencer’s extensive portfolio management, the company said it will offer the full range of healthcare real estate services to an expanded client base that includes healthcare systems, physician tenants and practice groups.

• Quintiles Transnational (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina) reported the completion of its previously reported new investor partnership to support the company’s continued growth under the leadership of founder and current chairman/CEO Dennis Gillings, CBE and the management team (Medical Device Daily, Dec. 27, 2007).

Gillings and global private investment firms Bain Capital and TPG Capital have become the lead investors in Quintiles, with 3i also becoming a significant investor. Temasek Holdings remains an investor in Quintiles. As part of the transaction, One Equity Partners, the private equity arm of JPMorgan Chase, has sold its stake in the company to the new investor partnership.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The company incurred no new debt as a result of the deal, it said.

Quintiles provides professional services in drug development, financial partnering and commercialization for the pharma, biotech and healthcare industries.