A Medical Device Daily

Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, Massachusetts) reported that it has acquired La-Pha-Pack (Langerwehe, Germany), a manufacturer of chromatography consumables and related accessories. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Thermo Fisher said that La-Pha-Pak, with revenues of around $25 million, will allow it to offer an expanded line of chromatography consumable products through broad geographic coverage in Europe.

"La-Pha-Pack is well-known in Europe for its breadth of product portfolio, fast order turnaround and strong customer support," said Marijn Dekkers, president/CEO of Thermo Fisher. "This acquisition will significantly strengthen our chromatography offering in Europe by complementing our existing specialty brand, Chromacol, which is manufactured in the U.K. Additionally, we expect to take advantage of La-Pha- Pack's highly automated manufacturing and assembly processes to improve our production capabilities and deliver high-quality consumable products to customers more efficiently than ever before."

La-Pha-Pack will be integrated into Thermo Fisher's laboratory consumables business, which is part of its Laboratory Products and Services Segment.

Thermo Fisher reports more than 350,000 customers through two premier

brands, Thermo Scientific and Fisher Scientific, via technologies for routine testing to complex research and discovery.

Agilent Technologies (Santa Clara, California) reported closing its acquisition of Velocity11 (Menlo Park, California), a maker of automated liquid handling and laboratory robotics for the life science market. Financial details were not disclosed.

Agilent said that the acquisition enables it to offer a more comprehensive suite of workflow solutions to the pharma, biotech and academic research markets by strengthening its offerings of automated sample-preparation solutions across a range of applications.

Rob Nail, former Velocity11 CEO, and now its general manager, said, "With Agilent's strong customer relationships, commitment to quality and global reach, we should be able to take Velocity11's products to the next level of market penetration." Substantially all of Velocity11's approximately 150 employees have joined Agilent.

Velocity11's products range from stand-alone instrumentation to multi-armed robotic systems, along with software to control the robotics. Its customers include major pharma and biotech companies, as well as genome centers and academic institutions.

With a second office in Hertfordshire, UK, Velocity11 has field sales and support throughout the U.S. and western Europe.

Agilent bills itself as "the premier measurement company and a technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis."

In other dealmaking activity:

  • Cyberonics (Houston) reported acquiring exclusive rights to three additional patents pertaining to vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) for the treatment of stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The patents were licensed from Southern Illinois University (SIU Carbondale), the terms not disclosed. The research underlying the patents was a collaboration of psychology faculty at SIU Carbondale and physiology and neurology faculty at the SIU School of Medicine. "Today's announcement, combined with our recent agreements to support several institutional grant applications for pilot studies in TBI, demonstrates our commitment to expand our business around the neurology and surgery call points," said Dan Moore, president/CRO of Cyberonics. "We remain committed to advancing new applications of VNS therapy in the exciting field of neuromodulation."
  • Pediatrix Medical Group (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) said it will sell its newborn metabolic screening laboratory to PerkinElmer (Waltham, Massachusetts) for an undisclosed amount of cash. Pediatrix said it will work with PerkinElmer to conduct clinical research into possible applications for tandem mass spectrometry technology in prenatal and neonatal testing and diagnostics to improve patient care. Pediatrix will continue to operate its separate, internally developed newborn hearing screen program, a service that screens for hearing loss, usually prior to newborn discharge. Pediatrix is a provider of neonatal, maternal-fetal and pediatric physician subspecialty services and recently expanded to include anesthesiology services.
  • Emdeon Business Services (Nashville, Tennessee) reported acquiring IXT Solutions (Nashville), a developer of patient billing and payment solutions. Emdeon said the acquisition adds the industry's leading online patient billing, eCashiering, return mail management and lockbox services to its existing suite of patient billing and payment solutions. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
  • Dynacq Healthcare (Houston) reported selling the land, buildings and tangible assets of Vista Surgical Hospital (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) to the State of Louisiana. Dynacq said the closing of the sale was delayed and the sales price was reduced as a result of the receipt by the state of an appraisal of the real property and other assets in an amount less than the $20 million purchase price previously agreed to. The gross sale price for the assets was reduced to $17.6 million in cash, paid at closing.