Medical Device Daily, and MDDs

Two competitors in brachytherapy treatment for prostate cancer have joined up, creating a single operation that aims to hold and further develop the leading position in that field with a combined 40% market share.

International Brachytherapy (IBT; Seneffe, Belgium) reported acquiring the BEBIG division of Eckert & Ziegler Strahlen und Medizintechnik (Berlin, Germany), a specialist in tumor radiation systems and implants for cancer treatment, for 123.4 million ($37.4 million).

At the end of March, the Eckert & Ziegler group became the largest shareholder of IBT by acquiring rights to 52% of the Belgian company.

Eckert & Ziegler said the consolidation will yield an additional 110 million ($16 million) to revenues for 2008, projecting total revenue for the group this year of 170 million ($112 million).

"We do not intend to take control of IBT," said Andreas Eckert, CEO and founder of Eckert & Ziegler. Instead, he said, "Our main focus now is to make IBT the undisputed European leader for brachytherapy products, to develop the product pipeline, and to benefit from the synergies in production and sales that the combination offers."

The combined entity will be run by a management team from both IBT and Eckert & Ziegler, with Fran ois Blondel as CEO.

The companies produce similar products for brachytherapy – a radiotherapeutic using tiny titanium cylinders, the size of a grain of rice and called "seeds" that are implanted near or inside cancerous tissue, delivering a cell-killing dose to the tumor while sparing the healthy surrounding tissue.

The principal application is for prostate cancer, the most frequent cancer for men in Europe with 135,000 new incidences annually, where the injection of the seeds through a endorectal probe causes lower incontinence and impotence rates than the surgical removal of the prostate.

In a report to shareholders, IBT said it expects that more than 5,000 men will be treated with the combined group's products in 2008 and that it is taking a leadership position in Europe, with subsidiaries in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and the UK.

IBT stopped direct sales in the U.S. in 2007, citing unfavorable changes in reimbursement and an unfavorable exchange rate that, together, were generating major losses and draining cash.

In January, Institut Curie (Paris), the prestigious French research and cancer therapy center, said it treated its 1,500th prostate cancer patient with seeds produced by the BEBIG division.

In February, Eckert & Ziegler's wholly owned Spanish subsidiary reported a 1700,000 order ($1.1 million) to supply regional hospitals with brachytherapy products.

In combination with special applicators, the radioactive seeds also are used to treat eye cancer.

New UK facility for Orchid Cellmark

Orchid Cellmark (Princeton, New Jersey), a global provider of identity DNA testing services, said it will open a new regional forensic facility in the North West region of England later this year following the award of work from nine new police forces.

The work was awarded to Orchid Cellmark following a North West/South West and Wales regional forensic tender.

The company said the laboratory will place the company close to its customers in the North West of England and is expected to provide expansion capacity to accommodate the existing award as well as future growth. Orchid Cellmark has started DNA testing work for some of its new police force customers and is preparing to take on the rest of the work covered by the award.

Three-year contracts are expected to be executed shortly for the nine police forces under which Orchid Cellmark will provide forensic services, including DNA testing of database crime scene samples, forensic casework and PACE samples (DNA database samples taken under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act).

Thomas Bologna, president/CEO of Orchid, said, "The magnitude of the anticipated work justifies the requirement for a new facility in North West England. Our success in the regional tender demonstrates that we can compete well in the UK on a direct basis with other UK-based forensics companies."

He added that the company anticipates that the remaining police forces in the UK will begin tendering their forensics work through the National Procurement Plan later this year or in 1Q09.

Expanded label for Intercept system

Cerus (Concord, California) said it has received expanded label claims in Europe for use of platelets and plasma treated with the Intercept Blood System to prevent transfusion-associated graft-vs.-host disease (TA-GVHD) in at-risk patients.

The company said that, while TA-GVHD is a rare disorder, "prevention is critical because it is a condition with greater than 80% mortality and no effective treatment options."

The expanded label claims allow blood banks in Europe to use the Intercept system in place of gamma irradiation for the prevention of TA-GVHD. Cerus said Intercept is the only CE-marked alternative to gamma irradiation.

The company said the Paul Ehrlich Institute in Germany already has authorized the use of the Intercept platelet system to replace gamma irradiation for prevention of TA-GVHD and Afssaps in France has made similar authorizations for both the Intercept platelet and plasma systems.

"This label expansion further validates that use of Intercept can improve the quality and safety of the blood supply via pathogen inactivation," said Claes Glassell, president/CEO of Cerus. "By replacing procedures such as gamma irradiation, bacterial testing and CMV screening, Intercept can save blood banks costs associated with screening and testing blood components, while reducing the risk of transfusion-related adverse events and extending the shelf-life of donated blood."

To date more than 100,000 Intercept platelet system kits have been shipped to blood banks to treat platelet components to be administered to thrombocytopenic patients in routine clinical use. Cerus said no reports of TA-GVHD events related to transfusions have been reported where hematology/oncology patients at risk for TA-GVHD were supported with Intercept -treated platelets without gamma irradiation.