• Advanced Bionics (Valencia, California), the neuromodulation division of Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts), and The Hearing Solution Group (Singapore), reported their official partnership. The Hearing Solution Group will advocate Advanced Bionics’ cochlear implant devices, helping to further Advanced Bionics’ commitment to providing superior service and support for its users throughout Southeast Asia, the company said. The Hearing Solution Group is the largest hearing healthcare provider in Southeast Asia, serving Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

• Baxa (Englewood, Colorado) and Health Robotics (Highland Beach, Florida) reported an alliance to automate the preparation of patient-specific chemotherapy drug admixtures. Health Robotics will optimize its technology for the exclusive use of the Baxa Two-Fer Needles in the automated vial and final containers’ access steps for its CytoCare Robot. Baxa Two-Fer Needles provide a unique design that can be used for vented or non-vented vial access, the company said. Their Huber tip prevents vial coring, making it ideal for safe access; whether in an automated device or for manual preparations.

• Baxter International (Deerfield, Illinois) reported that it has signed individual licensing agreements with Intercytex (Cambridge, UK) and Spinal Restoration (Austin, Texas) to evaluate the use of Baxter’s fibrin sealant Tisseel in novel regenerative medicine therapies. Baxter will supply Intercytex and Spinal Restoration with Tisseel at agreed upon pricing for use in their investigational treatments. Baxter will also obtain shares as part of the Spinal Restoration agreement. Intercytex will use Tisseel in combination with allogeneic dermal fibroblasts in the continuing development of two of its products; ICX-PRO, an investigational topical wound care product designed to actively stimulate healing in chronic wounds and ICX-SKN, an investigational skin replacement designed to replace autologous skin grafts. Spinal Restoration is working with Baxter to use Tisseel in the development of its Biostat Biologx Fibrin Sealant to augment healing and repair of painful defects in the intervertebral disc area of the spine. The sealant will be combined with the company’s technology to create the Biostat Disc Augmentation System, a minimally invasive product that will be studied to determine safety and efficacy for the treatment of painful degeneration of intervertebral discs.

• Cambridge Heart (Bedford, Massachusetts) said it has amended its sales and marketing agreement with St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota). St. Jude Medical’s sales force now will be able to market Cambridge Heart’s HearTwave II Microvolt T-Wave Alternans (MTWA) test to North American primary care and internal medicine physicians. In addition, Cambridge Heart’s sales force will have the ability to support St. Jude Medical’s field sales force in all physician markets in North America. Under the original agreement, signed in March, the cardiology and electrophysiology markets were to be targeted by St. Jude Medical’s field force, and Cambridge Heart’s representatives addressed the internal medicine and primary care markets. Cambridge Heart’s MTWA test measures a specific and extremely subtle pattern of beat-to-beat fluctuations in a person’s electrocardiogram, the company said. Cambridge Heart develops products for the non-invasive diagnosis of cardiac disease, particularly the identification of those at risk of sudden cardiac arrest.

• Halifax Regional Medical Center (Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina) has signed an agreement with RadarFind (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina) to begin implementation of a new Real Time Location System. The system uses automatic indoor location technology to keep track of and monitor the status of various medical devices throughout a hospital. RadarFind said that with this hardware/software solution, staff can rapidly locate essential equipment such as intravenous pumps, wheelchairs, beds, pulse oximeters and mobile computer systems at any given time, according to the system’s developers.

• Teleflex Medical (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina) reported being awarded five new respiratory care agreements with Novation (Irving, Texas), the healthcare contracting services company of VHA and the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC). Teleflex said it received the contracts as a result of Novation’s competitive bid process, along with input from the Novation Respiratory Clinical Advisory Council. The agreements are effective July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2010, and include: Routine respiratory disposables, including masks, cannula, tubing, bubble humidifiers, pre-filled large volume aerosol nebulizers, aerosol drain systems and unit dose solutions; ventilator disposable products, including those pertaining to active humidification, passive humidification/HME, bacterial/viral filters, heated wire and conventional disposable ventilator circuits; peak flow meters; small-volume nebulizers; and nasal and oral airways, including nasopharyngeal airways and oropharyngeal airways.