Medical Device Daily
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Essilor (Charenton-le-Pont, France) said it is continuing its aggressive international expansion with the acquisition of Interstate Optical (Mansfield, Ohio) and an equity investment in Unilab, a prescription laboratory in northeastern Brazil.

Essilor generated 43% of its €2.6 billion ($3.8 billion) in annual revenue in the U.S. The acquisition will boost those sales by another $26 million annually as well as adding Interstate’s two laboratories in Ohio and Indiana serving eye care professionals in 32 states.

In December Essilor of America (Dallas) acquired the assets of two prescription laboratories in North Carolina — Premier Optics (Belmont) and Gold Optical Enterprises (Fayetteville) — and also acquired two facilities operated by GK Optical in Greenwood and Fort Wayne, Indiana. The combined full-year revenue of these four facilities was $8.5 million.

Unilab is the first acquisition for Essilor in Brazil. The company did not disclose the share it purchased in Unilab, but said it intends to continue to increase its investment through 2011 when it expects to hold 51%. Unilab currently distributes Essilor products, including the leading Varilux line of progressive lens, and generated annual revenues of $5 million.

Essilor said taking an ownership position is in line with a strategy for reinforcing downstream distribution. Essilor has a distribution subsidiary in Brazil as well as a manufacturing facility and five lens treatment centers.

Essilor said it plans to keep the current management team in place for both operations.

In December Essilor strengthened its prescription laboratory network in Europe with the acquisition of majority stakes in two independent laboratories in the UK, Sinclair Optical Services (Gloucester, UK) and United Optical (Belfast, North Ireland). Combined annual revenues from these operations was €13.5 million ($19.8 million).

Europe accounted for 45% of the group’s revenue.

Active in more than 100 countries Essilor maintains a homogenous distribution network and manufactures products for correction or treatment of myopia, hypermetropia, presbyopia and stigmatism in 15 facilities worldwide, including six in Asia and three in France. The company operates 244 prescription laboratories and employs over 29,000 people.

Traded on the Paris exchange, Essilor holds a market capitalization of €8.6 billion ($12.6 billion).

Adept secures foothold in European markets

Adept Technology (Livermore, California) acquired privately held Cerebellum Automation (Chavanod, France), a specialist in robotics and motion-control solutions for the medical imaging and medical packaging industries. Adept will purchase all outstanding shares of Cerebellum for a total estimated at $1.2 million over two years.

The French start-up, founded in 2004, has built a strong base of manufacturing customers in France and Western Europe. Adept was eager to acquire the company’s product CIDE, a robotic and motion-control software development package, and ApproFlex, a feeding and small-part-handling system designed for manufacturers.

“Cerebellum complements our strong position in Germany and gives us a greatly expanded footprint in the French automation market, which is the third-largest in Europe,” said Adept CEO Robert Bucher.

Med-tech manufacturers using Cerebellum motion control architecture for medical imaging products include Sanmina-SCI (San Jose, California), Stereotaxis (St. Louis) and the European diagnostic imaging division of GE Healthcare (Waukesha, Wisconsin).

For three years Cerebellum has developed products for use under Adept strategic alliances that targeted new markets and applications for the U.S. firm’s automation controller platform.

Trial results boost P-Capt prion filter

ProMetic Life Sciences (Cambridge, UK) and MacoPharma (Mouvaux, France) reported the completion of two human clinical studies performed on volunteers using the P-Capt prion reduction filter for red blood cell concentrates.

The clinical studies evaluated the effect of the filter on units of red cell concentrate collected from human volunteers, to ensure that the use of the filter had no negative effect on the red blood cells themselves. Data demonstrated no negative impact, the companies said.

“These studies represent the first use of the P-Capt prion filter in humans and the results demonstrate that not only is the product effective in reducing the risk of transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) by blood transfusion, but also there is no impact of the treatment on the blood itself,” said Christophe Vinzia, MacoPharma’s director of business development. “This represents a major milestone and we anticipate the positive results will encourage early adoption of the product in the UK and Ireland.”

The companies’ announcement comes after reports of a previously unseen “vv” genotype individual contracting vCJD. “Reports of the vv genotype individual now mean that any individual is susceptible to contracting vCJD,” said Dr. Peter Edwardson, VP of medical technologies at ProMetic. “It adds weight to the argument that a second wave of vCJD may be on the horizon with these individuals exhibiting much longer incubation times for the disease.”

The companies said that continuation of clinical evaluation of the P-Capt filter by the Irish and UK National Blood Services, in combination with the study results, “point to a likely adoption of the P-Capt filter in 2008.”