A Medical Device Daily

Aspect Medical Systems (Norwood. Massachusetts), a developer of brain-monitoring technology, reported that it has entered into a letter agreement with Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) to waive specified provisions of the termination and repurchase agreement entered into by the companies back in June (Medical Device Daily, June 13, 2007).

Boston Scientific agreed, among other things, that for a period of 180 days after the date of the agreement, it would not sell any of its shares of Aspect common stock to a third party, and Boston Scientific granted to Aspect a call option, exercisable by Aspect in one or more transactions during the 180-day period, to purchase up to all of its remaining shares held of record by Boston Sci on the date of the agreement.

Aspect has agreed to waive the lock-up and the call option set forth in the agreement with respect to the remaining 1,513,239 shares of Aspect currently held of record by Boston Sci because that company and a third party, OrbiMed Advisors, have reached an agreement for OrbiMed to purchase all of those shares. The parties have also agreed to terminate the registration rights agreement dated June 11, by the companies relating to those shares.

In June, the companies agreed to end a collaboration to develop brain-monitoring products aimed at assisting clinicians in the diagnosis and treatment of depression, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological conditions.

At the time of the deal termination, Boston Sci held about 6 million Aspect shares, or 27% of shares outstanding.

For the next six months after the deal was scrapped, Aspect had the right to buy back the rest of the shares held by Boston Sci for $15 a share, or the average closing price of Aspect stock over the 10 trading days prior to Aspect exercising its right to repurchase, whichever is higher. Boston Scientific had also agreed not to sell any of its Aspect stock, except to Aspect, during the six-month period.

The neuroscience alliance was established in May 2005 and involved a commitment by Boston Scientific of $25 million for a five-year period to support research by Aspect in the depression and Alzheimer’s markets (MDD, May 25, 2005). Boston Sci had provided roughly $10 million of the $25 million originally committed.

In other financing news:

• The board of AmerisourceBergen (AB; Valley Forge, Pennsylvania) increased the company’s quarterly dividend rate 50% to $0.075 per common share from $0.05 per common share. The board also authorized a $500 million increase in its existing $850 million share repurchase program, which allows the company to repurchase its outstanding shares of common stock subject to market conditions.

As of Nov. 7, the company had about $89 million remaining under the original $850 million share repurchase program, which was authorized on May 24. With the $500 million increase, the company now has about $589 million remaining under its existing share repurchase program.

AB currently has 167 million common shares outstanding.

AB is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical services companies serving the U.S., Canada and selected global markets.