A Medical Device Daily

ev3 (Plymouth, Minnesota), a global endovascular device company, reported completing the acquisition of the outstanding shares of Micro Therapeutics (MTI; Irvine, California) that it did not already own through the merger of an ev3 subsidiary with and into MTI.

MTI said it will continue operations as a wholly owned subsidiary of ev3.

With the acquisition, MTI stockholders will receive 0.476289 of a share of ev3 common stock for each share of MTI common stock that they own. ev3 will issue about 7 million new shares of its common stock to MTI's public stockholders, bringing ev3's total pro forma outstanding shares to about 56.3 million.

In addition, upon closing of the transaction, options to purchase MTI common stock were converted into options to purchase shares of ev3 common stock.

Shares of MTI common stock, which had traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol MTIX, were delisted from trading as of the close of the market on Friday.

MTI is focused on catheter-based, or endovascular, technologies for the minimally invasive treatment of neurovascular disorders of the brain associated with stroke. Its products include the NXT and Nexus lines of embolic coils, the Onyx liquid embolic and a range of access and delivery products that include micro delivery catheters, balloon catheters and guidewires.

Per-Se Technologies (Alpharetta, Georgia) said it completed its acquisition of NDCHealth (Atlanta). The deal, valued at more than $900 million, was first reported in August (Medical Device Daily, Aug. 30, 2005).

NDCHealth stockholders will receive $14.05 in cash and 0.2253 of Per-Se common stock for each share of NDCHealth. As approved by Per-Se stockholders on Jan. 5, the company issued $200 million, or about 8.3 million shares, of common stock with the acquisition.

The company also secured financing in the form of a new senior credit facility consisting of a $435 million term loan B and a $50 million revolving credit facility, and all outstanding debt of NDCHealth was retired in connection with the closing of the transaction.

As part of the transaction, Wolters Kluwer (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), purchased the pharmaceutical information management business from NDCHealth.

Per-Se's Connective Healthcare solutions are designed to reduce administrative expenses, increase revenue and accelerate the movement of funds to benefit providers, payers and patients.

In other dealmaking news:

• PainCare Holdings (Orlando, Florida), providing delivery of orthopedic rehabilitation, minimally invasive spine surgery and pain management solutions, said it has acquired REC and CareFirst Medical Associates (CMA; both Whitehouse, Texas).

PainCare will pay up to $2.5 million in equal cash and stock. PainCare's acquisition model is to pay 50% of the total consideration, or $1.25 million ($625,000 in cash and 191,131 shares of restricted common stock valued at $625,000) at closing. The remaining balance will be paid over three years. REC owns and operates Whitehouse Physical Therapy (WPT) and East Texas Pain and Rehab (ETPR), clinics specializing in the delivery of pain management and orthopedic rehabilitation. Co-located with WPT and ETPR, CMA is also a pain management and orthopedic rehab practice.

Based on the collective historical financial performances of these clinics, PainCare expects WPT, ETPR and CMA to contribute more than $1 million in revenue and $500,000 in operating income to the company in the coming year.

• Medical Home Products (MHP; St. Petersburg, Florida) said it has completed its agreement to merge with Sequoia Asset Management (Encinitas, California).

MHP said the move will further broaden its overall product portfolio and accelerates its growth into the $2.8 billion medical self-test kit market. MHP is a resale provider of more than 200 self-test medical kits through e-commerce and direct sales affiliates.

One-third of hip fractures in U.S. had surgery

One third of the 310,000 Americans hospitalized for hip fracture in 2003 underwent hip replacement surgery, according to data from Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ; Washington). AHRQ's data also show that:

  • Hospitals billed Medicare and other payers nearly $9.2 billion for hip fracture care, including stays for hip fracture surgery patients.
  • The average charge for a hospital stay for hip fracture in 2003 was $30,000, nearly 50% higher than the average charge for hospital stays as a whole.
  • Those age 65 and older accounted for almost 90% for all hospital stays for hip fracture
  • Nearly three-fourths of all hip fracture patients were women.
  • Eight of every 10 hip fracture patients were admitted through the emergency department.
  • Three of every four hip fracture patients were discharged to a nursing home or rehabilitation facility.

AHRQ reported that this information was produced using HCUPnet, an online query system that provides access to health statistics and information on hospital stays from AHRQ's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). HCUP comprises a family of healthcare databases and related tools developed through a federal/state/industry partnership and sponsored by AHRQ.