A Medical Device Daily

GE Healthcare (Waukesha, Wisconsin), a unit of General Electric (Little Chalfont, UK), reported acquiring Wave Biotech (Somerset, New Jersey), a supplier of disposable manufacturing technologies for the biopharmaceutical industry. Financial terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

GE Healthcare said that the acquisition of Wave Biotech, including its subsidiary Wave Europe, will allow it to expand its offerings of products and services for the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals such as antibodies and vaccines.

Wave Biotech develops bioreactors designed to replace traditional and more expensive stainless steel tanks and piping. It says that this equipment is in use in more than 300 companies worldwide. Wave Biotech single-use bioreactors are also being used to enable the manufacture of patient-specific cell and gene therapy products.

Ann O'Hara, general manager of GE Healthcare's BioProcess business, said "The combination of GE Healthcare and Wave Biotech will allow us to expand into new applications and to create a broad offering of added value tools and services for biopharmaceutical manufacture."

Beckman Coulter (BC; Fullerton, California), a developer of biomedical testing products, reported that the mandatory antitrust waiting period associated with its proposed $1.55 billion acquisition of Biosite (San Diego) has expired and that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission did not request any additional information or documentary material.

"We are pleased to have achieved this significant milestone toward the completion of our acquisition of Biosite. Expiration of the waiting period without a second request for information further demonstrates the certainty of Beckman Coulter's transaction with Biosite, and we remain on schedule to close the transaction by early May," said Scott Garret, president/CEO of BC, referring to a later bid from rival Inverness Medical Innovations (IMI; Waltham, Massachusetts) that values the Biosite shares at $90, $5 dollars more than the BC offer.

The Biosite board said it is in the process of considering the IMI bid (Medical Device Daily, April 11, 2007).

"We continue to be very enthusiastic about the prospects for developing Biosite and Beckman Coulter as a combined business," said Garret.

Biosite also acknowledged passing of the antitrust milestone but made no further statements about which offer it will ultimately accept

In other dealmaking news:

• MedAssets (Atlanta) reported that it will acquire XactiMed (Richardson, Texas), a provider of web-based revenue cycle technologies and services to healthcare.

The agreement, expected to be final in May, will expand the offering of MedAssets Net Revenue Services to include claims management, remittance management, denial management solutions, and an array of revenue cycle services and consulting.

The addition of XactiMed's solutions with the MedAssets Net Revenue Systems' portfolio will offer healthcare providers an integrated suite of technologies and services to improve accuracy in their revenue cycle processes, improve accounts receivable days outstanding, increase charge capture, speed collections and improve compliance, MedAsset said.

• Alliance Imaging. (Anaheim, California), a healthcare services provider of diagnostic imaging services, reported the closing of its acquisition by funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management and MTS Health Investors of about 24.5 million shares of the company's common stock from a fund managed by an affiliate of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

Oaktree and MTS now own about 49.7%, and the KKR fund now owns less than 3% of the outstanding shares of common stock of the company. The company did not sell any shares in the transaction.

• Acusis (Pittsburgh), a provider of outsourced medical transcription services, reported acquiring Digital Records (DRC; Santa Clara, California).

An integration of Acusis and DRC is planned over the next 100 days "while keeping unbreakable separation between U.S. and India transcription," Acusis said. It said activities will focus on servicing existing hospital, clinic and physician groups.

• IVoice (Matawan, New Jersey), a developer of speech recognition technology reported that its subsidiary, Thomas Pharmaceuticals (New York), has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission a registration statement in anticipation of the spin-off of Thomas by iVoice to its shareholders.

Subject to final review by the SEC, holders of iVoice common stock will receive shares of Thomas common stock. The spin-off is not a reverse split of iVoice stock. Thomas anticipates that its shares will be traded on the NASDAQ OTC Bulletin Board.

Thomas develops over-the-counter non-prescription healthcare products with a focus on the high-end, branded consumables market.