Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, Illinois) completed the asset purchase of the coronary and peripheral interventional business line of the Jomed Group (Helsingborg, Sweden) for a cash purchase price of EUR 60 million. Jomed's line of interventional cardiology and peripheral devices, including stents, stent grafts, angioplasty balloon devices and guiding and diagnostic catheters, will be integrated into Abbott Vascular Devices (AVD; Redwood City, California). These vascular products are used in the treatment of arterial obstructions in the coronary arteries, bypass grafts, lower extremities, kidneys and carotid arteries. Abbott currently markets complementary products in the vessel closure, coronary stent and embolic protection segments. AVD develops vessel closure, coronary stent, and peripheral and embolic protection technologies for cardiovascular disease treatment.

Medamicus (Plymouth, Minnesota) entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the operating assets of Biomec Cardiovascular (BCI; Minneapolis, Minnesota), a developer and manufacturer of implantable stimulation leads, lead delivery systems and accessories for cardiac rhythm management and neuromodulation. BCI is a subsidiary of Biomec (Cleveland, Ohio). Medamicus has agreed to pay $18 million at closing, plus or minus specified adjustments. In addition, Medamicus has agreed to make contingent payments based on sales of the BCI products in 2003 and 2004. Medamicus is obligated to pay at closing not less than $7 million in cash and not less than $7 million through issuance of newly issued Medamicus common stock valued at $7.50 per share. The remaining $4 million, subject to the adjustments, is payable by Medamicus at its option either in cash or by an additional issuance of common stock valued at $7.50 per share or a combination of cash and stock.

Intuitive Surgical (Mountain View, California) has closed its merger with Computer Motion (Santa Barbara, California). The two robotic surgery companies said the merger was closed via approvals by stockholders of the two companies at special meetings in early July, thus ending a long chapter of competition and patent disputes and launching a new chapter of cooperative technological development. With the closing of the merger, each outstanding share of Computer Motion common stock was converted into the right to receive 0.51426943 shares of Intuitive Surgical common stock, without giving effect to a reverse stock split. As the acquiring company, Intuitive will continue to do business as Intuitive Surgical, and will continue to trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol ISRG.

Teleflex Medical (Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania) reported that it has acquired substantially all of the assets of Genzyme's (Cambridge, Massachusetts) cardiothoracic devices business (Fall River, Massachusetts) for $32.4 million in cash and about $8 million in assumed trade obligations. With the acquisition, Teleflex expands its surgical device offerings to include minimally-invasive heart surgery and vein harvesting systems, aortic punch product lines, chest drainage and cardiovascular and valve suture products. Those product lines were part of Genzyme's Biosurgery business, divested because they fall outside its core biotech focus. Teleflex Medical is a global supplier of surgical instruments, medical devices, instrument management services and healthcare supplies. The company specializes in surgical instruments for the cardiovascular, general, urology, gynecology, ENT and orthopedic markets and also offers on-site operating room services for integrated health networks and custom instrument design and manufacture for OEMs.

Thoratec's (Pleasanton, California) International Technidyne (ITC; Edison, New Jersey) subsidiary entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire the IRMA Immediate Response Mobile Analysis (IRMA) point-of-care blood analysis system product line from Diametrics Medical (Roseville, Minnesota). ITC will pay about $5 million in cash and assume certain trade payables. The transaction is expected to close later this year. The IRMA system provides intermittent testing of a broad range of critical care tests, including blood gases in the operating room or at the patient's bedside.

Volcano Therapeutics (Rancho Cordova, California) completed the purchase of the global intravascular ultrasound and functional measurement businesses from Jomed. Volcano said that the purchase supports its strategy "to build on Volcano's groundbreaking Virtual Histology IVUS [intravascular ultrasound] technology which is being developed to enhance conventional IVUS technology." Volcano plans to add the Virtual Histology IVUS technology to the installed base of more than 1,200 Jomed/EndoSonics IVUS consoles currently in clinical use worldwide. Volcano now employs about 400 former Jomed employees worldwide, including direct sales organizations in the U.S. and in most of Europe. With completion of this acquisition, Volcano's headquarters have been relocated to the former U.S. headquarters of Jomed in Rancho Cordova. Its European headquarters will remain in Brussels, Belgium. Founded in 2001, Volcano is focused on the development of products for the detection and treatment of atherosclerosis and vulnerable plaques in the coronary arteries and peripheral vascular system. Also under development are technologies that could be useful in detecting and treating patients who are at risk for developing plaque rupture and subsequent adverse cardiac events.