Agilent Technologies (Palo Alto, California) and Royal Philips Electronics (Best, the Netherlands) said that a request for additional information has been received from the U.S. Department of Justice in connection with the pending acquisition by Philips of Agilent's Healthcare Solutions Group (Andover, Massachusetts). The companies said the request extends the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act until 30 calendar days after both parties comply with the request. The European Commission also has requested additional information as a part of its first-phase review of the proposed acquisition. The companies said they still expect to complete the deal in mid-year.

Ampersand Medical (Chicago, Illinois) and AccuMed International (also Chicago) have signed a definitive agreement for Ampersand to acquire its fellow diagnostics firm in a stock-for-stock deal. The transaction, is subject to final approval by AccuMed shareholders and is expected to close during 2Q01. AccuMed's preferred and common stockholders will exchange their outstanding shares for a combination of Ampersand's new Series A convertible preferred stock and common stock. A total of 4 million newly issued and registered common shares would be issued to AccuMed's stockholders assuming conversion of all preferred shares. Ampersand said the revenue implications of the deal include the integration of AccuMed's instrument and research and development contract with Ventana Medical Systems (Tucson, Arizona). Ampersand develops laboratory-based and point-of-care screening systems to assist in the early detection of cervical, gastrointestinal and other cancers. AccuMed supplies cytology and histology products to improve the quality of cell-based specimen analysis, including electronic imaging systems and image-analysis software.

Cardima (Fremont, California) reported that it has received a second and final payment of $4 million from Medtronic (Minneapolis, Minnesota) for transfer to Medtronic of certain intellectual property related to intravascular sensing and signal detection. Medtronic's acquisition of the technology was reported last December. Cardima developed the technology for accessing and gathering signals in the coronary sinus and its feeder vessels for treating atrial fibrillation (AF) and ventricular tachycardia, and Medtronic will apply the technology to intravascular sensing and device placement. Cardima received a total of $8 million for the patents and related intellectual property and retained a license for its core focus.

Charles River Laboratories (Wilmington, Massachusetts), a subsidiary of Charles River Laboratories International, has agreed to acquire Primedica (Worcester, Massachusetts), a provider of preclinical drug discovery and development services. Charles River will purchase Primedica from Genzyme Transgenics (GT; Framingham, Massachusetts), with the price to include $26 million in cash, $16.5 million in restricted stock, and $9.5 million in assumed debt.

HemaSure (Marlborough, Massachusetts) has signed an agreement under which Whatman plc, a British firm, will buy most of HemaSure's assets and assume most of its liabilities. The purchase price consists of $10 million in cash, plus cash or an amount of Whatman common stock which effectively covers the net change in cash from the ongoing operations of HemaSure's business from last Nov. 1, through the date of closing the agreement, an amount expected to be about $3 million. Whatman has agreed to pay HemaSure a royalty on sales of filtration products using the technology Whatman is acquiring. Whatman will retain all of HemaSure's personnel associated with the acquired business.

H-Quotient (Vienna, Virginia) reported the sale of its IHS subsidiary to Ultraque LLC for about $800,000. The primary assets of IHS are service contracts for older-generation DOS software products.

Mentor (Santa Barbara, California) has completed its $32 million acquisition of Porges SA (Paris), a subsidiary of Sanofi-Synthelabo. Porges is a maker of urological products, including diagnostic tools and various devices for surgery and postoperative follow-up. Mentor said Porges holds the leading market share for urological products in France and has a strong position throughout Europe. Mentor said it would begin actively marketing the Porges product line, which is not currently distributed in the U.S.

SRS Medical Systems (Burlington, Massachusetts) said that it will purchase all rights to the Influence In-Flow continence device from American Medical Systems (Minneapolis, Minnesota), a developer of urological systems. The value of the deal was not disclosed. The In-Flow product is an intraurethral device for women with incontinence related to atonic bladder, a condition that results in loss of bladder sensation and control. The device was developed by Influence Medical Technologies, an Israeli manufacturer acquired by AMS.

VSM MedTech (Vancouver, British Columbia) has closed its deal to purchase the assets of CTF Systems, developer of whole cortex magneto encephalography (MEG) systems used in functional brain imaging of both adults and the human fetus. CTF's noninvasive systems require no radioactive markers or applied magnetic fields. Applications include functional brain mapping, epilepsy localization, diagnostics in stroke recovery and fetal neurological assessment.