Andromed (Montreal, Quebec) said that it plans to divest its Androfact system in order to refocus its activities on its Androsonix technology platform while developing additional commercial partners for its Androscope family of products. The divestiture and refocusing will require, the company said, "a restructuring and rationalization of staff, which will result in a non-recurring charge of approximately C$750,000, and will result in annual savings of around C$2.3 million." In addition to electronic auscultation, the first Androsonix applications will be Androflo, an instrument that monitors respiratory rate and other ventilation parameters based on the tracheal airflow sounds, and Androgram, used for the early detection and monitoring of pulmonary artery pressure for patients suffering from pulmonary hypertension. Creator of the world's first fully electronic stethoscope, Andromed said it is "positioning itself as a key clinical solutions developer on the non-invasive diagnostics and telehealth markets."

Angiotech Pharmaceuticals (Vancouver, British Columbia) completed its acquisition of STS Biopolymers (Henrietta, New York) in an all-cash transaction totaling about $23 million. STS is a privately owned company that specializes in the development and manufacturing of biocompatible coatings for medical devices. STS has been developing and manufacturing biocompatible coatings for medical devices since 1991. STS coatings are in commercial use on a range of medical devices including vascular, neurointerventional catheters, dilators, cannulae, gastroenteral feeding tubes, urinary catheters, blood filters, infusion catheters and guidewires. They also license a series of hydrophilic lubricious (Slip-Coat), drug delivery (Medi-Coat) and medical imaging (Echo-Coat) coatings to a variety of medical device partners. "STS has coating technology adaptable to the many applications we are developing for next-generation drug-loaded medical devices," said William Hunter, president and CEO of Angiotech.

RoundTable Healthcare Partners (Lake Forest, Illinois), an operating-oriented private equity firm focused on the healthcare industry, has closed on its acquisition of Argon Medical Devices (Athens, Texas), the vascular products business of Maxxim Medical (Oldsmar, California). Argon makes specialty vascular access and pressure-monitoring devices used in the cardiology, radiology and critical care market segments. The Argon brand of single-use components includes guidewires, needles, sheath introducers, catheters, manifold kits, transducers and control syringes.