MIV Therapeutics (MIVT; Atlanta/Vancouver, British Columbia), heretofore focused primarily on the development of a material to be used in a drug-eluting stent (DES), says it has acquired a key stent platform for its technology with the purchase of Biosync Scientific (Gujarat, India), a developer of interventional cardiology products, including stents.

While Dr. Mark Landy, president of MIVT, told Medical Device Daily that the financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed, he said that Biosync has a “strong presence in India,” calling it the “largest in the cardiology market” in that country as well as “footprints in China and India.

MIVT said that Biosync provides it a “highly competitive” bare metal stent (BMS) platform that compares favorably with the best BMS devices available today. Both Biosync’s stainless steel and thin-strut cobalt chromium stent platforms are CE-marked and available in other countries where the CE mark is recognized.

MIVT said it will use the Biosync stent platform as the underlying BMS technology for its proprietary biocompatible polymer-free DES.

It said the acquisition is its latest step in its plan to become a world leader in the $8 billion-plus interventional cardiology market. In September, MIVT entered into a formal agreement to acquire Vascore Medical (Suzhou, China), a manufacturer and distributor of advanced interventional cardiology devices (Medical Device Daily, Sept. 15, 2006).

MIVT has developed a device coating, hydroxyapatite (HAp), designed to protect surrounding tissue from potentially harmful interactions with BMS. It is a bioactive porous material that makes up the bone mineral and matrix of teeth and used as a bone substitute material and for coatings on implantable fixation devices in various device applications.

In November, MIVT reported results of an animal study of two of its DES technologies comparing stents coated with its polymer-free DES to the Cypher stent from Cordis (Miami, Florida). The company said that the study demonstrated that both of MIVT’s proprietary, polymer-free, Sirolimus eluting coatings are at least as good as the Cypher and it demonstrated its coatings’ potential and efficacy when compared to Cypher.

The four-week porcine study, performed by the Department of Cardiology, Thoraxcenter, Erasmus University Medical Center (Rotterdam), indicated that three variations of MIVT’s polymer-free drug-eluting coatings were at least as effective as — and in some cases, better – than the Cypher.

MIVT recently announced that it intends to begin the first human implants of a HAp Nano Film Coated stent early in 2007.

Landy told MDD that when it is able to go to the FDA for approvals, it will offer “a number of generations of products.

Biosync was founded by Rajesh Vaishnav, a developer of many BMS and DES systems. He will be CEO of Biosync.

“The acquisition of Biosync Scientific brings us not only a highly competitive CE mark stent platform for our revolutionary polymer-free drug-eluting coatings, but also the expertise and experience of Mr. Vaishnav,” Landy said.

In other dealmaking activity:

• CareGuide (Coral Springs, Florida), a disease and healthcare management company, reported completing the purchase of Haelan (Indianapolis), an improvement solutions company, for $1.5 million in cash and the issuance of three-year convertible promissory notes to Haelan securityholders for up to $6.5 million. CareGuide also will pay to Haelan’s securityholders up to another $3 million, for certain revenue milestones in 2007.

Haelan is the developer of a predictive modeling strategy, One Care Street, used to identify at-risk members for near-term healthcare utilization. One Care Street employs a survey to identify at-risk individuals before they require high levels of medical resources. When identified, members at risk have the opportunity to work with a One Care Street “Health Coach” to reach healthcare goals.