A Medical Device Daily

Cognizant Technology (Teaneck, New Jersey), a provider of IT and business process outsourcing services, reported an agreement to acquire marketRx (Bridgewater, New Jersey), a provider of analytics and related software services to life sciences companies in the pharma, biotech and medical devices segments.

Cognizant said it will make the acquisition with about $135 million in cash, to be funded from current cash reserves.

Cognizant said that the acquisition strengthens its offerings across all areas of the Life sciences. marketRx combines analytics, market research and software services to provide web-based solutions in three areas for life science companies: sales management and operations, brand marketing and product management, and market research. The company also said marketRx brings a client base to Cognizant representing 75 life sciences customers, including the largest 20 pharmaceutical companies and four of the top five biotech companies.

The deal is expected to close in 4Q07.

In other dealmaking:

• Specialty Blades (Staunton, Virginia) said it intends to buy Popper and Sons (New Hyde Park, New York). Financial terms were not disclosed.

Popper supplies a variety of specialty needle and tubing products to the medical device and diagnostics industries. According to Specialty Blades, the combination of companies will create “a cutting and piercing component company serving the device industry with estimated sales of $35 million.”

“Popper’s portfolio of specialty needle and tubular products complements our current medical device contract manufacturing strategy,” said Peter Harris, president/CEO of Specialty Blades. “The combined offerings should give medical device and diagnostics companies the broadest array of cutting and piercing device development and production skills in the industry and further cement our position as the cutting and piercing center of excellence for these markets.

“The transaction is also expected to substantially increase our revenues and is an important step in our strategy to grow our business and increase shareholder value.”

The deal is expected to close on or before Dec. 31.

• QLT (Vancouver, British Columbia) reported the acquisition of ForSight Newco II (Menlo Park, California). The deal was first disclosed earlier this month (MDD, Oct. 10, 2007).

QLT said the acquisition will give it the rights to commercialize ForSight’s ocular punctal plug drug delivery system, and will lead and fund future development efforts in this program.

ForSight’s punctal plugs are a non-invasive drug delivery system that QLT believes will be capable of delivering a variety of drugs to the eye over time through sustained release to the tear film. According to the company, sustained release punctal plugs could potentially replace eye drops for glaucoma, dry eye, allergies and postoperative care, which represent a $6 billion market. In addition, plugs may provide a more effective, convenient and reliable treatment alternative that could improve patient compliance with their medication leading to better outcomes for their disease, the company said.

QLT’s R&D efforts are focused on pharmaceuticals in the fields of ophthalmology and dermatology. The company said it uses two technology platforms, photodynamic therapy and Atrigel, to create products such as Visudyne and Eligard.

• StockerYale (Salem, New Hampshire), a manufacturer of structured light lasers, LED modules and specialty optical fibers, reported the acquisition of the assets and intellectual property of Spectrode (Wilmington, Massachusetts), a developer of pulsed Thulium Doped Fiber Laser Technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.

All of Spectrode’s patents and patents pending will be assigned to StockerYale, including the “Gain Switched Fiber Laser System,” StockerYale said.

Spectrode is a spinoff of AZNA (Wilmington, Massachusetts), a provider of chirp managed directly modulated lasers. StockerYale makes fluorescent lighting products and phase masks.

• Orthovita (Malvern, Pennsylvania), a spine and orthopedic biosurgery company, said it has agreed to acquire raw material, equipment and a technology license from Allergan (Irvine, California) for about $6.6 million in cash. Orthovita said it expects to make the payment in a lump sum on or about Oct. 31.

The raw material, equipment and license to be acquired from Allergan relate to the production of Orthovita’s Vitagel Surgical Hemostat product, which combines the biomaterials bovine collagen and thrombin with the patient’s autologous plasma. Allergan, which currently supplies collagen for Vitagel, will make and supply specified quantities of collagen to Orthovita by Oct. 31.

Allergan also agreed to sell Orthovita certain collagen production and test equipment and agreed to grant Orthovita a non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free, irrevocable license to certain collagen production process technology and know-how. The license rights are limited to certain uses, including those related to the processing and production of collagen for surgical hemostats, the company said.

Orthovita develops synthetic-based biomaterials for use in spine surgery, the repair of fractures and other products in the trauma, joint reconstruction, revision and extremities markets.