SRSMedical (Redmond, Washington) has moved its West Coast operations to a larger facility in Redmond and said it plans to expand its East Coast operations later this quarter.

Kevin Connolly, CEO, said the new facilities were needed to serve the company’s expanding customer base. “We recently completed the acquisitions and development that were required to assemble the industry’s most comprehensive and innovative product suite for continence care. Our new Redmond facility immediately doubles our warehouse space for supplies and allows us to further increase capacity in the near future. The new East Coast facility will house customer support and engineering groups.”

SRS acquires technologies in the areas of incontinence and women’s health. In January it acquired the assets related to devices for the treatment of female incontinence from Eutech Medical (Gothenburg, Sweden). In October 2003, it acquired all assets related to urodynamic products and certain incontinence treatment devices from Endocare (Irvine, California) and before that acquired the assets of Asbrook/Eris (Ventura, California), a manufacturer of urodynamic products, as well as the In-Flow female catheter from American Medical Systems (Minnetonka Minnesota).

13 million Americans ‘morbidly obese’ by 2010

Millennium Research Group (MRG; Waltham, Massachusetts) has conducted an analysis of the U.S. bariatric equipment and devices market and says that rising rates of morbid obesity in the U.S. are obliging hospitals to accommodate extremely overweight individuals for bariatric surgery as well as for other procedures and tests. According to the report, “US Markets for Bariatric Equipment and Devices 2007,” the U.S. bariatric market will generate more than $1 billion a year by 2010.

“Bariatric equipment such as wheelchairs, beds, scales, and longer-length devices are often required when surgery or other procedures are performed on very obese individuals,” said Lexie Code, senior analyst at MRG. “For example, when laparoscopic surgery is performed on morbidly obese patients, the distance between skin-level incisions where specialized devices enter the body and the internal organs is much longer. Hospitals must therefore purchase more expensive, longer-length devices to accommodate such procedures.”

In 2006, obesity levels in the U.S. were notably high, with 3.9% of the population considered morbidly obese, a much higher rate than in other regions such as Europe. The U.S. obesity rate represents a population of more than 11 million people, which will increase about 3% per year over the forecast period.

Thus, by 2010, nearly 13 million Americans will be morbidly obese. It is increasingly common for severely obese individuals to require treatment for various obesity-related conditions.

Obesity is defined as having a disproportionate accumulation of fat, while morbid obesity specifically refers to individuals that are 100 or more pounds overweight.

Millennium Research Group provides strategic information to the healthcare sector. Focused solely on the medical device, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries, the company provides its clients with the benefits of its specialized industry expertise through published reports and customized consulting services.

New Brunswick not in Nasdaq compliance

New Brunswick Scientific (Edison, New Jersey), a provider of a line of research equipment and scientific instrumentation for use in the life science industry, said it has received a notification from the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Department that, as a result of the untimely death of one of its directors, Joel Jaffe on Oct. 8, 2006, it was no longer in compliance with Nasdaq’s audit committee requirements because it currently had only two independent directors serving on its audit committee.

Biopure not in Nasdaq compliance

Biopure (Cambridge, Massachusetts) said it received notice from Nasdaq that its closing bid price fell and remained below $1 for 30 consecutive business days and so is out of compliance with that requirement by Nasdaq. Biopure has 180 calendar days to regain compliance by having the bid price of its common stock close at $1 per share or more for at least 10 consecutive business days. If it does not regain compliance by April 16 it may apply to transfer its securities to The Nasdaq Capital Market and take advantage of the additional 180-day compliance period offered on that market, if it satisfies the requirements for initial listing on that market except for the bid price requirement. If Biopure does not demonstrate compliance within the compliance period, it will be issued a delisting letter.

Biopure makes pharmaceuticals, called oxygen therapeutics, that are intravenously administered to deliver oxygen to the body’s tissues.