PERTH, Australia – Osprey Medical Inc. signed a deal with GE Healthcare that will see the company expand its global footprint for its Dyevert contrast minimization devices across Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia and Turkey. GE Healthcare will be the exclusive distributor in those markets, allowing Osprey to grow its commercial presence beyond the U.S. and Australia.
Thermo Fisher Scientific expanded its Globalaccess Sequencing Program to include oncology laboratories in addition to research labs working on COVID-19 studies. The company will subsidize a limited number of Genexus systems to help pathology laboratories around the world.
HONG KONG – Seoul-based Vuno Inc. faces the happy dilemma of being able to choose from multiple partnership offers to add to the string of recent deals inked by the South Korean company. The company’s most recent deal is an agreement with Dong Wha Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. for a ₩3 billion ($2.5 million) investment. For Dong Wha, the deal is a culmination of a three-year effort to diversify its business via active investments in the latest health care trends.
Strata Oncology Inc. has inked an agreement with newcomer Elevation Oncology to ramp up patient identification and enrollment for the latter’s phase II CRESTONE study evaluating the use of seribantumab in patients with recurrent, locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors of any origin that have a neuregulin-1 (NRG1) gene fusion.
HONG KONG – Tokyo-based Terumo Corp. has snapped up Dutch health care startup Quirem Medical BV, which develops selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) microspheres to treat liver cancer.
While med-tech dealmaking in the second quarter of 2020 increased by 27% from the first quarter and is in line with the values disclosed during the same period in 2019, M&A money for the industry has fallen significantly.
Novocure Ltd. and Merck & Co. Inc. will work together to test the use of electric fields at specific frequencies in combination with anti-PD-1 immunotherapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab) to treat non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The pair plan to start a phase II pilot study during the second half of Novocure’s Tumor Treating Fields in combination with Keytruda as a first-line treatment for intrathoracic advanced or metastatic, PD-L1 positive NSCLC.
Medtronic plc said Wednesday it will purchase Medicrea Group, a French manufacturer of patient-specific 3D printed spinal implants, in a step to further strengthen its spine surgery business. The friendly, all-cash offer is priced at €7 (US$7.98) for each Medicrea share, a 22% over its July 14 closing price. The total value of the deal is approximately €200 million (about US$228 million), which includes roughly €50 million in net cash and liabilities plus about €150 million in equity. Medtronic expects to close the deal by the end of the year, pending regulatory nods in France and the U.S.
Thermo Fisher Scientific has joined forces with First Genetics JCS to commercialize next-generation sequencing (NGS) diagnostics in Russia. The agreement allows Moscow-based First Genetics to bring its F-Genetics NGS system and in vitro diagnostic assays for reproductive health testing to Russian labs.
Biointellisense Inc. received an FDA clearance in January for its Biosticker to monitor patient vital signs at home for as long as 30 days. It was just starting to launch, when along came the novel coronavirus. Now, the Band-Aid-sized monitor is being used to monitor COVID-19 patients at home, as well as chronic disease patients.