A Medical Device Daily

Greatbatch (Clarence, New York) reported that it will acquire substantially all of the assets of Biomec (Cleveland) for $11.4 million in cash and future additional considerations.

Greatbatch said that the agreement is subject to Biomec shareholder approval.

Biomec was established in 1998 with the goal of accelerating promising technology from major medical and academic institutions, national laboratories, and internal developments to successful commercial products.

It reports that it is developing a polymer coating (biomimetic) that mimics the surface of endothelial cells of blood vessels with potential use on several medical devices, including in-dwelling central venous catheters, cardiac pacing leads, and extra-corporeal blood pump circuits in bypass surgery.

Additionally, the company has a product development and an investment partnership in IntElect Medical (also Cleveland), an early stage neurostimulation device company that works in conjunction with the Cleveland Clinic (also Cleveland).

Greatbatch develops components used in implantable medical devices and other demanding applications.

SpectRx (Norcross, Georgia) reported that it has signed a binding "no shop" agreement and a non-binding letter of intent to sell its non-core SimpleChoice insulin pump infusion set business. The agreement was signed with one of several unnamed parties that the company said have expressed interest in purchasing or licensing the SimpleChoice product portfolio.

The company said it expects to complete the transaction some time this year. The planned sale of the business is part of a previously disclosed reorganization of the company around its non-invasive cancer detection technology (Medical Device Daily, March 16, 2007).

"As we announced last week, it is our intention to sell, or out license, certain assets of the company to provide additional non-dilutive capital to help bring our painless cervical cancer test to market," said Mark Samuels, CEO and chairman of SpectRx. "The sale of the SimpleChoice business is the first of several planned actions to compete the reorganization of the company," he added.

SimpleChoice brand products are for use with insulin pumps used by people with diabetes to control their blood glucose levels. The products include disposable infusion sets and insulin reservoirs.

SpectRx is developing a test for the early detection of disease that leads to cervical cancer.

In other dealmaking news: MDS (Mississauga, Ontario), a provider of products and services to life sciences markets, reported that 92% of the outstanding shares of Molecular Devices (Sunnyvale, California) were validly tendered by that company's shareholders in the tender offer, which expired on Monday. The $615 million cash deal was first disclosed in January (MDD, Jan. 30, 2007).

MDS will launch a new business unit called MDS Analytical Technologies, combining the Molecular Devices and MDS Sciex businesses to serve pharmaceutical, biotech, government, and academic laboratory customers with solutions to improve the speed and efficacy of their drug discovery and development efforts.

MDS Sciex President Andy Boorn, PhD, will lead the new unit and will launch integration plans immediately to bring together two businesses that had revenues of about $432 million in 2006, and more than 1,100 employees with over 250 scientists and engineers.

"This new business unit will build upon MDS Sciex's leadership in mass spectrometry and Molecular Devices' leadership as a renowned supplier of systems, reagents and software used by researchers worldwide to accelerate the pace of drug discovery and development," said Boorn.

MDS is a provider of pharmaceutical contract research, medical isotopes for molecular imaging, radiotherapeutics and analytical instruments.