A Medical Device Daily

Micro Therapeutics (MTI; Irvine, California) reported receiving a $3.7 million payment resulting from the acquisition by C. R. Bard (Murray Hill, New Jersey) of certain assets of Genyx Medical (Aliso Viejo, California), a company in which MTI held a minority equity interest.

Privately held Genyx licensed MTI's liquid embolic technology for certain non-vascular applications in 1997. Genyx recently reported that it had received FDA approval for Uryx, an injectable tissue bulking agent for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence that is based on the technology licensed from MTI.

MTI makes minimally invasive medical devices for the diagnosis and treatment of vascular disorders. The company's primary focus is on catheter-based technologies and products for the interventional neuroradiology market.

MTI's products include the Sapphire and NXT lines of embolic coils, the Onyx liquid embolic system and a broad line of micro catheters, guidewires and occlusion balloons that are used in the treatment of cerebral vascular disorders.

InSight Health Services (Lake Forest, California) reported extending the expiration date of its offer to exchange up to an aggregate of $25 million principal amount of its 9-7/8% senior subordinated notes due 2011, for a like principal amount of its registered 9-7/8% senior subordinated notes due 2011. The date was extended from Jan. 31 to Feb. 1, unless further extended.

InSight provides diagnostic imaging and information, treatment and related management services. It serves managed-care entities, hospitals and other contractual customers in 36 states.

In other financing activity:

XOMA (Berkeley, California) reported that it intends, subject to market and other conditions, to sell about $60 million principal amount of its convertible senior notes due 2012 to qualified institutional buyers.

The company said it expects the terms of the offering to include an option for the initial purchaser in the offering to purchase up to an additional $20 million principal amount of notes.

XOMA said it plans to use the proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes, including current research and development projects, the development of new products or technologies, equipment acquisitions, general working capital and operating expenses.

XOMA manufactures products to treat immunologic and inflammatory disorders, cancer and infectious diseases.

BSD Medical (Salt Lake City) reported that it has received a payment of $881,141 in funds released from an escrow account that had retained a portion of the company's initial cash settlement from the sale of TherMatrx (Chicago) to American Medical Systems (Minnetonka, Minnesota).

At the time of the sale last July, BSD received $8,974,744 after escrow funds were withheld from the initial payment for the TherMatrx transaction. The deal was first disclosed in June (Medical Device Daily, June 17, 2004). With the release of escrow funds, the initial payment settlement has increased to $9,855,885.

At the time of the closing of the TherMatrx sale, BSD projected that the payment for its initial cash settlement would be about $9 million after the withholding of escrow funds and the payment of other initial obligations. The company also offered several scenarios for the total payout, including contingency payments, that would be made to it based on TherMatrx sales between July 2004 and year-end 2005.

The first projection was that if TherMatrx sales remained flat from their run rate prior to the sale, the total payout to BSD would be about $30 million.

The second projection was that since the sale of TherMatrx products had been increasing substantially year-on-year, that growth trend would continue during the earn-out period, boosting the estimated payout of about $40 million, including the initial settlement payment.

A third projection was that if TherMatrx sales accelerated faster than the trend prior to the sale, the total payout could exceed $40 million, up to a potential payout cap of about $62 million.

Once such payments are earned in excess of the initial payment, they are to be paid quarterly. No accounting has yet been made for TherMatrx sales made through year-end 2004, and no quarterly contingency payments have yet been made.

BSD Medical is a developer of microwave and radio frequency systems for thermal medicine applicable to the treatment of cancer, benign diseases and other medical conditions. BSD developed the technology used by TherMatrx to treat complications resulting from enlarged prostate that affect most men over age 50.

Biomet launches Cobalt bone cement in U.S.

Biomet (Warsaw, Indiana) said it would broaden the range of its internally developed and manufactured bone cement product offering. Cobalt, which was specifically developed for use in minimally invasive surgery, will be introduced in the U.S. toward the end of 2005.

Biomet said the “handling characteristics and high optical contrast of Cobalt are well-suited to the current trends in orthopedic surgery.“ Offered with and without antibiotic, Cobalt will be marketed in conjunction with Biomet's Optivac bone cement delivery system.

In an effort to reduce continued dependence on its relationship with Heraeus Kulzer GmbH, an external supplier of certain bone cements for Biomet, the company said it initiated the development of its own advanced cement systems in order to remain a market leader in the bone cement and accessories product category.