Acquisitions
* Accumed International (Chicago, Illinois) has purchased 1 million common shares of Oncometrics Imaging from Xillix Technologies, boosting its stake to 100% and making it a wholly owned subsidiary. The pur-chase represents the one-third of Oncometrics shares Accumed did not previously own. Terms of the acquisi-tion were not disclosed. Accumed makes in vitro manu-al and semi-automated diagnostic test kits to treat bacterial infections. Oncometrics is the developer of quantitative DNA stains and analytical computer software that have been integrated with AccuMed’s computer-aided microscopy AcCell workstations.
* Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) has acquired privately held CardioGene Therapeutics (Princeton, New Jersey) in a pooling-of-interests transaction involving an undisclosed amount of stock. CardioGene is developing applications of gene therapy for treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
* Caprius (Wilmington, Massachusetts), devel-oper of the Aurora breast imaging system based on magnetic resonance imaging, said it has closed on its acquisition of the Strax Breast Imaging Diagnostic Institute (Lauderhill, Florida), which provides breast imaging services to about 15,000 patients.
* Consolidated Medical Management (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) has signed a letter of intent to acquire United Medical Services (also Louisiana), a provider of diagnostic ultrasound imaging services to physician offices, clinics, hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. Operating as a mobile laboratory, United Medical will offer services to facilities that cannot support their own ultrasound equipment or full-time technologists.
* Fresenius Medical Care AG (Bad Homburg, Germany), in a move to focus on its core dialysis oper-ations, has completed the sale of its U.S. diagnostic imaging business to Navix Radiology Systems (Coconut Grove, Florida). Udo Werle, CEO of Frese-nius Medical Care, said the sale “completes our objec-tive to sell the diagnostics services division, which is a non-core asset,” allowing the company to put more resources into developing renal products and services. Fresenius operates more than 740 dialysis centers in the U.S. and more than 200 in Europe, Latin America and Asia, and provides dialysis treatment to about 70,000 patients worldwide. Werle noted that Fresenius has signed an agreement to sell its other non-core business, home care, with that sale set for completion during 3Q98. Proceeds from the two divestitures are expected to be in the range of $100 million.
* Gulf South Medical Supply, a subsidiary of PSS World Medical (Jacksonville, Florida), has acquired National Medical (Chattanooga, Tennessee), a privately held distributor of medical supplies to the home health care marketplace. National Medical will become part of the Gulf South Medical Supply division. It has pro-duced annualized revenues of approximately $7 million. Gulf South Medical provides products and services to about 8,000 long-term care facilities in 50 states.
* Haemocell (Oxford, United Kingdom) and Sur-gical Innovations (Leeds, United Kingdom) are to merge in a share swap that values the two companies equally. The enlarged company will take the Surgical Innovations name and consolidate activities at the Leeds site. Haemocell markets its System 350 autolo-gous blood salvage system, which is intended both for intra- and post-operative use, selling for about $12,000. Surgical Innovations develops and manufactures min-imally invasive surgical instruments which are market-ed direct and via OEM agreements with major endo-scopic surgery groups. The Japanese subsidiary of Getz Bros. (San Francisco, California) helped finance the development of Surgical Innovations and will hold 37% of shares in the merged company.
* LifeQuest Medical (San Antonio, Texas) has sold all of the rights to its Osteoport device to Ana-Tech LLC for $600,000 in cash and a 5% royalty on future gross sales of the product.
* Nitinol Medical Technologies (Atlanta, Geor-gia) has acquired Electa Neurosurgical Instruments from Sweden’s Electa AB for $33 million and will operate it as a subsidiary renamed NMT Neuro-sciences. The division will sell a broad range of spe-cialty implants and instruments for neurosurgery, including cerebral spinal fluid shunts, proprietary surgical instruments and the endoscopes and instru-mentation for minimally invasive neurosurgery, and it is expected to produce sales of nearly $40 million.
* Dental implant manufacturer Nobel Biocare AB (Goteborg, Sweden) will purchase competitor Steri-Oss (Yorba Linda, California), establish U.S. headquarters at Yorba Linda, and retain the Steri-Oss management team. The deal is a stock-and-cash transaction valued at $97 million, plus debt. Assum-ing approval by shareholders, the deal will be com-pleted this fall. The company said about 100 North American employees will be transferred to California and about 40 to 50 more will be hired.
* Wesley Jessen Visioncare (Des Plaines, Illi-nois) has acquired Plastic Contact Lens Argentina SAIC, a major maker of contact lenses in Argentina. The company will be renamed Wesley Jessen, SAIC, and will also serve as distributor of Wesley Jessen’s line of specialty lenses in Argentina. Source: The BBI Newsletter
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