A Medical Device Daily

Siemens Medical Solutions (Erlangen, Germany) reported that it has received antitrust approval and completed its acquisition of Gesellschaft f r Systemforschung und Dienstleistungen im Gesundheitswesen (GSD; Berlin).

The new entity, Siemens Medical Solutions GSD, will remain a separate legal entity, operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens Medical Solutions as part of the Health Services (HS) Division. With this acquisition Siemens strengthens its position in the European healthcare IT market.

Siemens said the combined product portfolio is unique in its regional and functional market coverage, enabling Siemens to tailor its solution offerings for customers at various levels of IT sophistication and maturity.

With more than 300 customers in 14 countries, GSD is a health information systems (HIS) company. With the addition of GSD’s i.s.h.med and i.c.m.health product lines, Siemens said the buy enhances its global healthcare IT portfolio and infuses additional industry expertise into its product and service offerings for the European market.

GSD generated revenue of 1 23.6 million and employed 167 people in fiscal year 2006.

After the formation of Siemens Medical Solutions Diagnostics, following the acquisitions of Diagnostic Products Corp. (DPC; Los Angeles) and Bayer Diagnostics (Tarrytown, New York), the acquisition of GSD is Siemens Medical Solutions’ third acquisition in the past three quarters.

The company said these moves support its strategy of building the industry’s first full service diagnostics company that combines diagnostic imaging, laboratory diagnostics and clinical information technology under one roof along the value chain.

Baxter International (Deerfield, Illinois) reported that it has completed the sale of its transfusion therapies business to Texas Pacific Group (TPG; San Francisco/London) and Maverick Capital for $540 million. The deal to sell the business to TPG and Maverick was unveiled late last year (Medical Device Daily, Oct. 4, 2006).

As disclosed in January (MDD, Jan. 18, 2007) the new independent company will be called Fenwal, the original name of the business when it was established in 1949.

Fenwal becomes one of the world’s largest suppliers of products and services to the transfusion medicine industry, with a product portfolio of manual and automated blood-collection products and storage equipment, about 3,500 employees, and five manufacturing facilities located in Haina, Dominican Republic; La Chatre, France; Maricao and San German, Puerto Rico; and Bir Drassen, Tunisia.

Baxter will continue to provide certain manufacturing, distribution and support services to Fenwal for varying periods of time following the close, under transition agreements signed by the companies.

In other dealmaking news:

• Vyteris Holdings (Fair Lawn, New Jersey) reported that it has entered into a letter of intent to acquire Lehigh Valley Technologies (LVT; Allentown, Pennsylvania), a specialty pharmaceutical cGMP manufacturer with solid dosage (tablets and capsules) and liquid manufacturing capabilities. Terms of the acquisition were not released.

LVT currently has more than 20 prescription products in various areas of development. Additionally LVT is evaluating an abuse resistant technology for its pain products.

After closing, the companies expect that LVT would operate as a separate subsidiary and operating unit of Vyteris Holdings.

Vyteris is the maker of the first active drug delivery patch to receive marketing clearance from the FDA. Vyteris’ active transdermal drug delivery (iontophoresis) technology delivers drugs through the skin using low-level electrical energy.