A Medical Device Daily
PLC Systems (Franklin, Massachusetts), which focuses on cardiac laser technologies, said it has agreed with Edwards Lifesciences (Irvine, California) to modify the original Optiwave 980 contract, reported in February 2004.
PLC will receive $1.5 million in consideration for transferring to Edwards the Optiwave 980 disposable handpiece manufacturing and development rights and will also receive a royalty on future Optiwave 980 disposable handpiece revenue to a maximum of $1.7 million.
PLC said it remains the exclusive manufacturer for the current generation of Optiwave 980 lasers and has the right of first refusal to develop and manufacture the next generation technology.
Mark Tauscher, president and CEO of PLC Systems, said the restructuring allows both companies to focus their efforts on their respective core strengths. “We believe the immediate financial return offered to us through the up-front $1.5 million payment, coupled with the upside potential that we have retained through the new royalty arrangement, provides us a better overall economic result.
“In addition, this new arrangement eliminates the need for us to ramp-up and devote substantial manufacturing and engineering resources for Optiwave 980 disposables, which allows us to focus our critical resources on our new strategic growth initiative. This was a significant consideration for us, since we believe our new strategic initiative will provide a better overall growth opportunity for PLC.“
In other agreements news:
• Neoprobe (Dublin, Ohio), a diversified developer of oncology and cardiovascular surgical and diagnostic products, reported that it had received notification of the renewal of its marketing and distribution agreement with Ethicon Endo-Surgery (Cincinnati), through December 2008.
Ethicon Endo-Surgery has distributed the company's neo2000 gamma detection system on a worldwide basis, except Japan, since 1999.
The neo2000 is used by surgeons in a surgical application referred to as sentinel lymph node biopsy.
• Acacia Research (Newport Beach, California) reported that its CombiMatrix group's subsidiary, CombiMatrix Molecular Diagnostics (CMDX), and Array Genomics (AG; Paris) will co-develop and market an new series of comparative genomic hybridization microarray products and services internationally, using expertise and technology from both companies.
The initial products, which will be manufactured in the U.S. by CMDX and distributed in Europe by AG, are a series of arrays for the diagnosis of mental retardation anomalies. It is anticipated that the arrays will begin generating revenue for both companies within the next several weeks.
• Waters (Milford, Massachusetts) and Bruker BioSciences (Billerica, Massachusetts) have entered into a agreement to provide greater integration and connectivity between Waters Acquity Ultra Performance LC (UPLC) system and Bruker's mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance products.
The collaboration will allow direct support of Waters Acquity UPLC System in Bruker's HyStar software thus unifying control and results management in an effort to combine the technologies.