A Medical Device Daily

Analytical instrument developer Thermo Electron (Waltham, Massachusetts) yesterday reported acquiring GV Instruments (Manchester, UK), a manufacturer of isotope ratio mass spectrometers (IRMS), for about $21 million (£11.6 million), subject to post-closing adjustments.

Thermo, billing itself as a leading IRMS manufacturer, said the purchase enables it to offer additional solutions in high-precision isotope ratio determination used in earth sciences, medical and life sciences applications. It said that GV Instruments will add the capability of Noble Gas Isotope Mass Spectrometry to its offerings for use in climate research, food and flavor analysis for origin and authenticity, agriculture research, and medical and life sciences research.

Marijim Dekkers, president/CEO of Thermo, said, “By adding the complementary range of products from GV Instruments, Thermo can now offer the most sophisticated IRMS solutions to a variety of significant fields of earth science research such as geochemistry, geochronology and climate research, just to name a few. Additionally, GV Instruments' customers will have access to Thermo's global presence and world-class customer support.”

Thermo's Life and Laboratory Sciences segment provides analytical instruments, scientific equipment, services and software solutions for life science, drug discovery, clinical, environmental and industrial laboratories. Thermo's Measurement and Control segment provides analytical instruments used in a variety of manufacturing processes and in-the-field applications, including those associated with safety and homeland security.

Bruker AXS (Billerica, Massachusetts) reported purchasing all shares of privately held KeyMaster Technologies (Kennewick, Washington) from KeyMaster's previous majority shareholder Advent International and other shareholders.

KeyMaster makes hand-held X-ray fluorescence (XRF) systems for numerous applications, including: metals and alloy analysis used in various metal processing industries, including automotive, scrap sorting, and others; Positive Material Identification required in the aerospace and power industries; Restrictions of Hazardous Substances analysis required under European regulations; environmental metals-in-soil or lead-in-paint analysis; art, museum and archaeological analysis; and elemental taggant analysis for tracing of origin and security.

As a new Bruker AXS subsidiary, KeyMaster will remain in Kennewick and continue under its current name and management to provide hand-held XRF systems and miniaturized X-ray technologies.

Frank Laukien, president of Bruker AXS, said: “KeyMaster technology is perfectly complementary to our existing X-ray analysis portfolio and will be an enabling technology to pursue new miniaturized analytical solutions, particularly in fast-growing industrial applications.”

Bruker AXS, a business unit of Bruker BioSciences, is a provider of life science, materials research and industrial X-ray analysis tools.

In other dealmaking:

• WebMD Health (New York), a provider of online health information services, reported that it has agreed to acquire the interactive medical education, promotion and physician recruitment businesses of Medsite (New York) for $41 million in cash.

Medsite offers physician relationship management platform and detailing services include program development, targeted recruitment and online distribution and delivery. Medsite leverages its proprietary database of more than 400,000 physicians across every major specialty for online recruitment and participation into its programs. Medsite works with more than 60 large pharmaceutical, medical device and healthcare companies in support of their physician-directed marketing efforts.

The acquisition is scheduled to close in September.

“This acquisition will enable WebMD to provide its pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers with an expanded set of online solutions to increase sales and marketing efficiencies, and complement their direct physician detailing efforts,” said Wayne Gattinella, CEO of WebMD.

Medsite revenues were about $13.4 million, with a net 2005 loss of $1.9 million. WebMD Health is a subsidiary of Emdeon (Elmwood, New Jersey).

• EPIX Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, Massachusetts), a developer of pharmaceuticals for MRI which recently announced an agreement to merge with Predix Pharmaceuticals Holdings (Lexington, Massachusetts), has set its annual meeting for Aug. 15, for EPIX shareholders to consider a proposed merger with Predix.

EPIX uses its Target Visualization Technology to create imaging agents targeted at the molecular level and to enable physicians to use MRI to obtain information about specific disease processes. On April 3, 2006, EPIX announced the agreement to merge with Predix to create a company with capabilities in therapeutics and imaging.

• CLP Healthcare Services (doing business as Cloverleaf; Nashville, Tennessee), a provider of hospice and palliative care, reported purchasing hospice and palliative care provider RTA Hospice (RTA; Mesa, Arizona).

Cloverleaf was formed in 2006 through a partnership between James Deal and Thoma Cressey Equity Partners.

RTA was established in 1991 to provide hospice care in non-urban communities throughout Arizona. It offers hospice and palliative care in Casa Grande, Lakeside, Payson and Sedona and operates an institutional pharmacy in Phoenix for hospice providers.

• NovaMed (Chicago) reported acquiring a 61% interest in the Clearview Surgical Institute (Laredo, Texas), a multi-specialty ambulatory surgery center, NovaMed's fourth center in Texas. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Thomas Hall, NovaMed president/CEO, said, “In the last 12 months over 3,000 surgical procedures were performed at this center, and we expect this acquisition will be immediately accretive to our earnings.”

NovaMed is a developer/operator of ambulatory surgery centers in partnership with physicians. NovaMed now has ownership interests in 32 surgery centers lin 17 states.