New York-based Medidata Solutions Inc. has acquired Shyft Analytics Inc. of Waltham, Mass., for $195 million in an effort to build applications and analytics that are supported by the largest available pool of life sciences research data. The combined company brings together the clinical development data capabilities that are core to Medidata with Shyft's commercial and real-world data analytics.

New York-based Medidata Solutions Inc. has acquired Shyft Analytics Inc., of Waltham, Mass., for $195 million in an effort to build applications and analytics that are supported by the largest available pool of life sciences research data. The combined company brings together the clinical development data capabilities that are core to Medidata with Shyft's commercial and real-world data analytics.

Researchers from Exact Sciences Corp. and their partner the Mayo Clinic have developed and done initial testing on a DNA biomarker blood-based test to detect hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common kind of liver cancer. The company aims to meet with the FDA before year-end regarding additional clinical and regulatory steps, with a trial expected to start early next year.

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) received a binding offer of $2.7 billion in cash from Fortive Corp. for the acquisition of its Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP) business, a division of Ethicon Inc. This is just the latest big-ticket medical device business divestiture from J&J; last quarter it reported it would sell its Lifescan business to private equity firm Platinum Equity for $2.1 billion.