A Medical Device Daily

Synergetics USA (O'Fallon, Missouri), a manufacturer of medical devices for ophthalmic surgery and neurosurgery, reported signing a three-year distribution agreement with Codman & Shurtleff, a business of Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, New Jersey) for certain Synergetics supplies.

Codman & Shurtleff will distribute bipolar generators and related disposables and accessories. First-year sales under the distribution agreement are estimated to be about $6.5 million.

Synergetics also said in a release it will license to Codman, on a royalty bearing basis, the MALIS trademark owned by Synergetics for use with certain Codman products. This agreement also is for three years.

Synergetics was formed in a reverse merger between privately held Synergetics Inc. and Valley Forge Scientific, that closed in September.

In other agreements:

• Clinical Data (Newton, Massachusetts), a developer of pharmacogenomics and clinical diagnostics, said it has entered into a collaborative research agreement with the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI; Pittsburgh).

Clinical Data, acting as the study sponsor, will apply metabolomics analysis to serum samples from a population of patients diagnosed with lung cancer and matched control subjects without lung cancer patients recruited as part of the National Cancer Institute-funded Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Lung Cancer at the UPCI. The serum samples will be provided to Clinical Data by the UPCI.

The collaboration will pursue what the company believes is the first metabolomics study in a lung cancer population. The company notes that any new intellectual property or inventions derived from this study will remain the property of the respective party that makes any new discovery with final ownership determined by applicable U.S. Patent Law.

• HemoSense (San Jose, California) said that it has signed a marketing and distribution agreement with ZyCare (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) to integrate the use of HemoSense's INRatio PT/INR monitoring system with ZyCare's Web-based CoagCare system for patient self-testing through physician practices and hospital clinics.

INRatio is a portable Prothrombin Time/INR testing monitor, and CoagCare is the only FDA-cleared, HIPAA-compatible remote INR test reporting and dosage management system for patients on oral anticoagulant therapy.

CoagCare enables patient home monitoring, using INRatio remotely.