• Biomedical Disposal (BioMed; Norcross, Georgia) has signed a two-year, $16.7 million agreement with Mediq PRN (Pennsauken, New Jersey) for the rental of BioMed's Sharpx needle destruction unit to the U.S. acute care market. Under the revenue-sharing agreement, Mediq becomes BioMed's authorized rental and service representative, while the Sharpx units remain the property of BioMed for the life of the agreement. Mediq rents durable medical equipment in the acute care marketplace, with more than 100 branches throughout the country.
  • Instrumentarium Imaging (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) has signed an agreement with PenRad Technologies (Plymouth, Minnesota) to become a distributor for PenRad's information systems software program. The PenRad system incorporates interactive graphical screens that use a tap-not-type method to obtain patient information and produce interpretive reports, thus eliminating the need for transcription. Instrumentarium Imaging, a maker of diagnostic X-ray imaging equipment, is a division of Instrumentarium (Helsinki, Finland)
  • The StatLock CV Plus safety securement device, made by Ventec (San Diego, California), will be included in the Full Spectrum Tray central venous catheter tray sold by the Cook Critical Care division of Cook (Bloomington, Indiana), in a nonexclusive agreement. Ventec said the StatLock CV Plus protects against accidental needlesticks, while significantly reducing central venous catheter infections by eliminating the need to suture-secure the catheter in place.
  • VHA (Irving, Texas) has signed agreements with two companies to help member health care organizations choosing to reprocess and reuse medical devices. Alliance Medical (Phoenix, Arizona) and Vanguard Medical Concepts (Lakeland, Florida) will offer complete reprocessing services, helping participating VHA members reduce costs and biohazardous waste, while complying with federal regulatory requirements for medical device reprocessing. VHA is a network of 2,200 health care organizations and affiliated physicians.
  • Vitrolife AB (Goteborg, Sweden) signed an agreement with Millenium Biologix (Kingston, Ontario) for the development and testing of Vitrolife's culture media for use in human tissue engineering, particularly cartilage and bone. The agreement is being entered to cover a period of comprehensive testing and evaluation of candidate media produced by Vitrolife, based on current cartilage and bone cell and tissue culture models established by Millenium. Financial details were not disclosed.