A Medical Device Daily
Bovie Medical (Melville, New York), a maker of electrosurgical products, reported that it has signed an agreement with Boston Scientific (BSX; Natick, Massachusetts) to acquire technology, patents, and assets related to the use of conductive sintered steel as an electrode for radio frequency (RF) cutting and coagulation, intended to lower blood loss, quicken procedure times and provide cost savings for hospitals.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Potential fields of therapy for the acquired technology include liver, pancreatic and kidney tumor therapies along with orthopedic and blood vessel sealing. The process involves delivery of RF current and sterile saline for resection, hemostatic sealing and coagulation in open and laparoscopic surgery.
The worldwide market size for the liver and orthopedic market is expected to total about $500 million in 2009.
This agreement replaces a previously signed distribution-and-marketing agreement between the companies for the technology's use in Boston Scientific's oncology business. The original agreement signed in 2007 required Bovie to develop and manufacture certain products using Boston Sci's intellectual property. Bovie said it intends to finalize the development and commercialization of the technology.
As part of the new agreement, Bovie granted a license to Boston Sci, limited until 2016 to uses outside of the previously listed fields.
"Adding strength to [our] new product line, Bob Rioux, who was at the forefront of the Boston Scientific tissue resection program, is joining Bovie as VP of advanced resection technologies," said Andrew Makrides, president of Bovie. "[His] combination of technical and marketing skills makes him ideally suited to commercialize these new products."
In other dealmaking news:
• Hospira (Lake Forest, Illinois), a global specialty pharmaceutical and medication delivery company, reported that it has acquired St. Clair Health (Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania) subsidiary Sculptor Developmental Technologies (Southpointe, Pennsylvania), a software engineering company formed by St. Clair in 1993 to advance the use of technology to improve patient care. Financial details of the Sculptor agreement were not disclosed.
Sculptor developed VeriScan Rx, a software application that supports bar code medication administration at the point of care. It is designed to streamline the medication administration process to enhance patient safety and clinician workflow.
As part of a related arrangement, St. Clair Hospital will serve as a development and test site for Hospira medication management products.
"Acquiring Sculptor expands Hospira's ability to offer device and software solutions that enhance safety and productivity," said Chris Kolber, president, global devices at Hospira. "Their approach to developing products designed by clinicians, for clinicians, results in high adoption rates and an immediate impact to patient safety and clinician efficiency."
Hospira has promised to keep Sculptor headquarters in Southpointe and to increase employment there.
• vision4health (Wilen, Germany) has acquired the Molis laboratory information system division from the Sysmex Group (Kobe, Japan). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The company, set up in 2007 and specializing in software solutions for diagnostic applications, will take over about 150 customer installations across Europe.
The acquisition will give the company an additional 80 employees in Germany, France, the Benelux countries, the UK, Switzerland and Austria.
vision4health was set up in June 2007 with the objective of developing next-generation software solutions for lab-related diagnostic applications.
• Pediatrix Medical Group (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) reported that it has completed the acquisition of Neonatology Associates (Rockville, Maryland), a neonatal physician group practice.
The practice consists of 16 physicians and four neonatal nurse-practitioners who care for babies admitted to the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and well-baby nurseries at five hospitals in communities across Maryland, including the Level III NICU at Rockville's Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. Combined annual patient volume exceeds 19,000 NICU patient days and more than 13,000 well-baby nursery days.
Pediatrix paid an undisclosed amount of cash for the Rockville practice, which is expected to immediately contribute to earnings per share, it said.
Pediatrix is a provider of neonatal, maternal-fetal and pediatric physician subspecialty services and recently expanded to include anesthesiology services.