A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

IT systems maker Sectra (Linköping, Sweden) reported it will add trauma templates to its orthopedic product line-up as part of a new agreement with Synthes (Solothurn, Switzerland).

Sectra will add Synthes’ 1,600 trauma templates to its 33,000 digital templates which come from 20 other orthopedic implant manufacturers.

“This agreement with Synthes enables us to extend our product offering within orthopedics to also meet the needs of trauma centers and emergency care hospitals, an important part of the U.S. orthopedic market, said Brian Anderson, VP of marketing at Sectra North America. “Trauma surgeons can leverage Sectra’s orthopedic solution to pre-operatively plan for surgery by accessing a suite of automated tools and digital templates, increasing the accuracy and speed of the pre-operative planning process.”

Sectra’s OrthoStation, an orthopedic planning package, includes image processing capabilities and a set of guides for pre-operative planning of hip and knee surgery.

In other agreement news:

• Beckman Coulter (Fullerton, California), maker of diagnostics instruments in the U.S., said it has been awarded new three-year agreements with Amerinet (St. Louis) to provide a full range of core laboratory systems and supplies, valued at about $74 million a year.

Amerinet, a healthcare group purchasing organization, has more than 2,200 acute-care hospital members.

Amerinet members will continue to purchase automation, general chemistry, immunoassay, integrated workcells, hematology, flow cytometry, and coagulation products from Beckman Coulter. Beckman Coulter and Amerinet have been partners since 1997.

Systems included in the agreement are Beckman’s Power Processor Automation Systems and UniCel DxC 800 and DxC 600 Synchron Clinical Systems, as well as high-throughput UniCel DxI 800 Access Immunoassay Systems and integrated UniCel DxC 600i Clinical Systems, which offer one of the broadest menus available on a single instrument, according to the company. Cellular analysis systems include Coulter LH 780 Hematology Analyzers, fully automated ACL TOP hemostasis systems with optional closed-tube sampling, and the FC 500 Flow Cytometry Systems.

• ImaRx Therapeutics (Tucson, Arizona) and Royal Philips Electronics (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) reported a new research alliance focused on using Philips’ ultrasound technology as part of ImaRx’s SonoLysis program to develop a new treatment for acute ischemic stroke.

Philips will provide ultrasound devices and technical assistance to ImaRx during lab and preclinical studies. The companies are trying to determine the optimal ultrasound parameters to use with ImaRx’s MRX-801 microbubble technology.

“ImaRx chose to partner with Philips specifically because Philips already has an emphasis on stroke and imaging of the brain,” ImaRx CFO Greg Cobb told Diagnostics & Imaging Week. “It’s one of the few areas where there’s a drug/device combination using our microbubble technology that’s therapeutic rather than diagnostic.”

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Cobb said the potential for the end product is vast because there is a large unmet medical need for patients with ischemic stroke. Of the approximate 700,000 patients who experience stroke each year in the U.S., 600,000 are ischemic and only a small fraction of those patients receive tPA, the only FDA-approved therapy.

The ImaRx SonoLysis program is focused on the development of products that involve the administration of its MRX-801 microbubbles and ultrasound to break up blood clots and restore blood flow to oxygen-deprived tissues with or without a thrombolytic drug. The sub-micron size of MRX-801 microbubbles may allow them to penetrate a blood clot and break it into very small particles.

The agreement includes a mutual exclusivity clause during the term of the collaboration. Following completion of research, Philips and ImaRx will renegotiate to discuss future development and commercialization.

In September, ImaRx received approval from the data and safety monitoring board to proceed with the second dose cohort in its TUCSON (Transcranial Ultrasound in Clinical SONoLysis) Phase I/II dose escalation study evaluating SonoLysis + tPA therapy in patients with acute ischemic stroke.

• Guardian Technologies International (Herndon, Virginia) is partnering with Delft Diagnostic Imaging (Veenendaal, the Netherlands) so that Guardian’s Signature Mapping computer-aided-detection with visualization software will be integrated into the Delft Odelca-DR digital chest X-ray system. The product will provide mass screening of patients and the digital storing, transmission and diagnostic viewing of images. The system was designed with special attention to the clinical imaging requirements for detection of tuberculosis (TB) in the developing world.

Deployment of the digital chest X-ray system will address the shortage of qualified health care technicians and diagnostic radiologists, reducing costs associated with screening chest X-rays, and delivering immediate diagnostic information to screeners.

Guardian also reported an alliance with Aurum Institute for Health Research (Johannesburg, South Africa) to create an automated imaging analysis system for the early identification and quantification of tuberculosis, malaria and pneumoconiosis which is also targeted for deployment in developing nations.

Under the agreement, Guardian and Aurum’s scientists will work to perfect the use of the Signature Mapping imaging technology to automatically detect, identify, and quantify the bacteria that causes TB and the parasites that cause malaria.

• Cerner (Kansas City, Missouri) inked a nine-year agreement with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA, Washington, DC) to use the Cerner Millennium PathNet laboratory information system in more than 150 hospitals and 800 clinics in the VA system.

The Millennium system automates both the clinical and managerial sides of the lab. The PathNet system tracks specimens from collection through testing and storage, and it helps unify workflow through bar codes, robotics and instrument interfaces. In addition to streamlining workflow in the laboratory, PathNet can reduce turnaround times through automatic verification and reporting. The system is designed to simplify the process of entering results, tracking repeat entries and corrections.

This will be the largest implementation of PathNet to date for Cerner and it means that clinical laboratories for all service members, past and present, will be operating on the same information software.

• Avalon Healthcare (Tampa, Florida) signed an agreement with Tenet Healthcare (Dallas), which covers Tenet’s 11 South Florida hospitals as well as its ambulatory surgery and imaging centers.

Recently, Avalon signed direct hospital contracts with the BayCare Health System (Tampa Bay), Mt. Sinai Hospital (Miami Beach), IASIS Hospital System (Tampa Bay) and Winter Haven Hospital (Polk County).

Avalon is a health insurance company offering consumer directed health plans to employers and individuals who need high quality, affordable healthcare and live and work in Florida.

• American Type Culture Collection (ATCC, Manassas, Virginia) ) reported a new alliance with The Valley Hospital (Ridgewood, New Jersey) to speed the development and validation of biomarkers for the early detection and treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Valley Hospital will provide ATCC with tissue from patients whose pancreatic tumors were resected, as well as stored blood and clinical perspectives on validation and application of the collaboration’s biomarker discoveries. ATCC will subject the pancreatic cancer samples to a biomarker discovery platform, including integrated proteomics, genomics, bioinformatics and an immunology paradigm.

The collaboration is focused on finding biomolecules that enable early detection, therapeutic monitoring and potentially treatment of pancreatic cancer. ATCC scientists also will use the ATCC Cell Biology Collection to test for the presence or absence of various biomarkers across a wide range of cell lines.

• Agilent Technologies (Santa Clara, California) and BioNanomatrix (Philadelphia) said they have entered an alliance to develop a new genetic analysis system. BioNanomatrix will apply its nanoscale single molecule imaging technology to develop consumable chips and reagents. Agilent will develop the measurement instrumentation platform for the system.

“This collaboration with Agilent provides us with the opportunity to join forces with a global life sciences leader to accelerate the development of our unique nanoscale whole genome imaging technology,” said Michael Boyce-Jacino, CEO of BioNanomatrix.

BioNanomatrix is developing technology to enable nanoscale single molecule identification and analysis of the entire genome, delivering single-molecule sensitivity in a highly parallel format.

“BioNanomatrix’s nanoscale whole genome imaging and analysis technology, with sensitivity.