A Medical Device Daily

Theragenics (Buford, Georgia), a company serving the cancer treatment and surgical markets, reported that it has acquired Galt Medical (Garland, Texas) in a cash and stock deal.

Theragenics paid about $31.9 million for Galt, consisting of about $28.8 million in cash and the issuance of 978,000 common shares valued at $3.1 million. Theragenics said it financed $7.5 million of the purchase price with borrowings on its existing $40 million credit facility.

Galt, a privately held company, manufactures disposable devices utilized for vascular access, primarily serving the interventional radiology and interventional cardiology markets. Its products include guidewires, micro-introducer kits and tear-away introducer sets and kits, and hemostasis valved introducer kits and sets.

Theragenics said the acquisition further diversifies its medical device and surgical businesses and leverages its existing strengths in these markets. The company said it expects the acquisition to be EPS neutral in '06, accretive in '07.

“The acquisition of Galt broadens our reach into medical devices by extending our offerings in this industry beyond our current portfolios. In Galt we have identified a fast growing company serving very attractive markets within the medical device industry,” M. Christine Jacobs, president/CEO of Theragenics, said, “With our acquisition of CP Medical [Portland, Oregon] we found synergies with our brachytherapy business as well as opportunities to move into new directions within the medical device field. Galt now represents another significant step in our diversification strategy.”

Theragenics purchased CP Medical – a manufacturer of sutures, cardiac pacing cables and brachytherapy needles — last year, in a cash/stock deal valued at about $25.4 million (Medical Device Daily, May 10, 2005).

Jim Eddings, president of Galt, said, “As we did with CP Medical, we are going to let Galt continue to do what they do best — that is, manufacture and supply high quality vascular access devices. . . . This acquisition furthers our diversification strategy and supports our effort to generate sustainable long-term growth.”

Galt had revenue of $7.1 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2005, and revenue of $5.1 million for the first six months of 2006.

Theragenics is a provider of brachytherapy and surgical products. Flagships product of its brachytherapy are the palladium-103 TheraSeed device, and I-Seed, an iodine-125 based device, used primarily in the minimally invasive treatment of localized prostate cancer. Its surgical products business manufactures wound closure, needles and other surgical products used in the urology, veterinary, orthopedic and other markets through CP Medical, and, now, disposable medical devices used for vascular access through Galt Medical.

In other dealmaking activity:

• RGHX (Westminster, Colorado) reported acquiring NoInk (Indianapolis), a private company developing systems that enable medical device manufacturers, pharmas and biotech firms to automate field sales processes and improve efficiencies in order, inventory and contract management. Terms were not disclosed.

NoInk enables supplier sales representatives to streamline the sales/inventory processes, allowing them, it said, “to spend more time assisting physicians in the selection and use of medical devices.” The company provides handheld applications for Sales Force Automation to medical device manufacturers, with more than 3500 sales representatives currently using its technology.

GHX provides products and services to automate the healthcare supply chain from contract commitment to payment.

“Similar to other companies acquired by GHX, NoInk offers a product that meets a critical supply chain need that we did not previously offer,” said Mike Mahoney, CEO of GHX.

NoInk, as a GHX subsidiary, will deliver its products and services through its Indianapolis office.

NoInk says that its sales task automation solutions are compatible with Pocket PC, Windows, Web and Tablet PC platforms. It includes inventory and sample management; sales call planning and surgical case scheduling; electronic product catalogs; competitive product comparisons; interactive presentations; automated order entry; document management; event management; field communications; and new product launch management.

• NovaMed (Chicago) reported that one of its subsidiaries has acquired the John Kenyon Center for Eye Surgery (Jeffersonville, Indiana), an ophthalmic ambulatory surgery center, the fifth ambulatory surgery center acquired by NovaMed in 2006. The acquisition was made by NovaMed Eye Surgery Center of New Albany , in which NovaMed owns a 67.5% interest.

Thomas Hall, NovaMed president/CEO, said, “In the last 12 months approximately 1,900 ophthalmic surgical procedures were performed at this center, and we expect this acquisition will be immediately accretive to our earnings.”

NovaMed acquires and operates ambulatory surgery centers in partnership with physicians. Including the transaction noted above, NovaMed now has ownership interests in 33 surgery centers located in 17 states.

• Reflect Scientific (Mountain View, California), a manufacturer of laboratory equipment and related supplies to the biotech, pharmaceutical and medical industries, reported closing a private placement for the merger of California-based Cryomastor , raising, it said, in excess of its required $1 million acquisition fee. The deal was first disclosed last month (MDD, July 6, 2006).

Reflect received, as part of the completed merger, all rights to Cryomastor intellectual property, product and customer testing programs.

Cryomastor is a provider of low- and ultra low-temperature (ULT) storage systems to the biotech, life science, hospitals, military, research and disease control centers industries.

Reflect said that the Cryomastor Ultra Low Temperature freezer system was recently certified for use through a rigorous testing program and the initial units will begin shipping “in the very near future.”

Kim Boyce, Reflect's president/CEO, said, “With the closing of our private placement . . . we are now prepared to move forward with commercial orders for our Ultra Low Temperature freezers. Our demonstration units have been a tremendous success, and we are excited to begin accepting orders and commence full production.”

Reflect provides products for the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical industries.