Royal Philips Electronics (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) last Thursday said that it will acquire Ximis (El Paso, Texas), a provider of a next generation Radiology Information System (RIS).

The deal is expected to close in the 3Q07. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Ximis will be incorporated into the Healthcare Informatics business group of Philips’ Medical Systems division, the company said.

Ximis has experience in the healthcare industry, with emphasis in radiology information systems. Its key product is Extended Internet Radiology Information System (Xiris), a web-based RIS, usable by community hospitals on up to large, multiple facilities hospitals, according to the company.

Xiris is intended to provide an international and multilingual solution. Ximis says that its customers include healthcare institutions across Europe, North and South America.

“Ximis is a company with very talented people and unique technology that will strengthen our position in Healthcare Informatics and will enable us to provide an integrated RIS-PACS solution,” said Oran Muduroglu, CEO of Philips Medical Systems’ Healthcare Informatics business group.

Xiris is designed to manage patient registration, scheduling, exam tracking, staff and resource management, and the generation of reports and statistical information, thereby reducing errors and streamlining the workflow at radiology facilities. Where Xiris concentrates on workflow management at radiology facilities, Philips iSite PACS concentrates on image management and distribution. As such, the Xiris solution is complementary to the Philips iSite PACS offering and will further strengthen Philips’ iSite PACS market position, according to Philips.

Katitza Gerdau, founder and CEO of Ximis, said, “Philips is the right home for Xiris since it has a high quality organization with a global, international scope. This acquisition will provide Xiris a foundation for the future. The RIS-PACS solution of iSite and Xiris will be amongst the strongest on the market today and will offer a powerful solution to clinics, doctors and to the patient. We are excited about this opportunity.”

In other dealmaking news:

• CombiMatrix (Mukilteo, Washington) reported that it has completed its previously disclosed spilt off from Acacia Research (Newport Beach, California) through the redemption of all outstanding shares of Acacia Research-CombiMatrix common stock. “We are pleased with the completion of our split off, and we wish Acacia Research Corporation continued success. As we move forward, we look forward to establishing our own identity in the personalized medicine market,” said Dr. Amit Kumar, president/CEO of CombiMatrix.

On the redemption date, every 10 shares of Acacia Research-Combimatrix common stock outstanding was redeemed for one share of common stock of CombiMatrix.

CombiMatrix split off from Acacia in order to focus on the molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine markets.

The CombiMatrix group is developing a platform technology to rapidly produce tailored-content arrays, which are semiconductor-based tools for use in identifying and determining the roles of genes, gene mutations and proteins. The group’s technology has a wide range of potential applications in the areas of genomics, proteomics, biosensors, drug discovery, drug development, diagnostics, combinatorial chemistry, material sciences and nanotechnology.

• DiagnoCure (Quebec City), a life sciences company commercializing cancer diagnostic tests and delivering lab services, said it has acquired Catalyst Oncology (Worcester, Massachusetts) and its lead tests for breast, colon and potentially other cancers. DiagnoCure said it intends to complete the development of the tests and conduct additional validating studies.

DiagnoCure will pay Catalyst Oncology about $3 million in cash and DiagnoCure shares, followed by potential milestone payments, the company said.

An investor relations representative for DiagnoCure told Diagnostics & Imaging Week that the tests are not ready for commercialization yet but that the company expects them to be available in roughly 12 to 24 months.

Because the technology has not been commercialized yet, the company is not yet disclosing potential revenues that the technology might bring in, or the price of the tests.

“This acquisition reflects the continuing execution of our focused M&A strategy, aimed at building a critical mass of high-value oncology diagnostic products that will be offered through our U.S. CLIA-certified laboratory, which is on track to open later this year,” said John Schafer, president/CEO of DiagnoCure. “The newly acquired tests have the potential to increase clinician and patient confidence when making critical treatment decisions and will complement our GC-C-based tests for colorectal cancer, acquired earlier this year.”

The acquired tests have been validated in multiple clinical studies involving patients with five tumor types, including breast and colon, DiagnoCure said. Results have shown the tests to be strong indicators for a patient’s risk of disease recurrence, as well as predictors of response to certain cancer therapies, such as tamoxifen or traditional chemotherapy. According to the company, the tests measure the level of activated tyrosine phosphorylated (PY) Shc protein and p66 Shc protein in tissue specimens. The Shc proteins are involved in a number of well-documented cellular pathways that are correlated with tumor aggressiveness across many types of cancer, offering a broad opportunity for clinical testing. These tests were developed by A. Raymond Frackelton Jr, PhD, and researchers at the Roger Williams Medical Center (Providence, Rhode Island).

With a 2007 estimate of 178,480 new cases and 40,460 deaths in the U.S., breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of death from cancer in women, DiagnoCure said. The global survival rate over five years is 89% but falls to 26% when breast cancer has spread to distant organs, the company said.

• DJO (San Diego), a provider of products and services for musculoskeletal and vascular health, reported that the Federal Trade Commission granted early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust waiting period for the proposed acquisition of DJO by an affiliate of ReAble Therapeutics (Austin, Texas).

In July DJO said it had entered into an agreement and plan of merger under which an affiliate of ReAble will acquire all outstanding shares of DJO’s common stock for a cash payment of $50.25 a share. An affiliate of The Blackstone Group is the controlling shareholder of ReAble. The proposed acquisition remains subject to approval by DJO’s stockholders and the expiration of the waiting period under the German Act Against Restraints of Competition.

• Waters (Milford, Massachusetts) reported the acquisition of Calorimetry Sciences (CSC; Linden, Utah), a manufacturer of calorimeters. The CSC business, with annual sales of about $4 million, will be added to Waters’ TA Instruments division (New Castle, Delaware) and the transaction is expected to be neutral to Waters 2007 earnings, the company said.

Waters says it holds worldwide leading positions in three complementary analytical technologies — liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, and thermal analysis.

Key products developed and offered by CSC include the Nano-ITCTM, an isothermal titration calorimeter designed to measure protein-ligand binding, and the Nano-DSCTM, an ultra-sensitive scanning calorimeter used for applications such as measuring the stability of proteins and other macro-molecules in dilute solutions.