A Medical Device Daily
Accelr8 Technology (Denver, Colorado) reported that NanoString Technologies (Seattle) has acquired a license to use its OptiChem coatings on the NanoString molecular identification platform.
NanoString is preparing for commercial launch of its nCounter Analysis System.
Accelr8 also reported that Schott Nexterion (Jena, Germany) purchased an OptiChem license renewal. The new license enables Schott’s Nexterion product group to continue non-exclusive global manufacturing and marketing of OptiChem-coated microarraying slides. The license follows two previous licenses to Schott.
Both licenses require up-front payment to Accelr8 of fees and pre-payment of minimum guaranteed royalties. The licenses provided $200,000 in combined cash payments to Accelr8.
David Howson, president of Accelr8, said, “We are very pleased that NanoString selected OptiChem coatings for their innovative digital gene expression platform. They have exciting technology for molecular bar-coding and need OptiChem’s ability to reject background interference while providing high capacity for specific target binding. Their technology has very high sensitivity without amplification. It provides a perfect example of the value of OptiChem’s exceptional noise-reduction capabilities.
Howson added: “We now focus almost all of our resources on developing our BACcel rapid bacterial diagnostic system. However, we do continue to jointly publish scientific studies and support an exploratory research program at the University of Groningen [Groningen, the Netherlands] for potential new OptiChem applications. As a result, we have ongoing projects with potential industry partners performing product feasibility studies in a variety of areas,”
In other deal making news:
• Zotec Partners (Indianapolis), a provider of medical billing services and licensed software to hospital-based physician specialty practices, reported that California Medical Business Services (CMBS; Arcadia, California) has licensed its Electronic Billing Center and Radiology Information System software.
CMBS is a medical practice management firm and a subsidiary of The Hill Medical Corporation, a group of 18 physicians providing radiology services at Huntington Memorial Hospital and other facilities.
“Zotec Partners will play a significant role in helping CMBS meet its mission of providing our customers with cost-effective practice management solutions,” said Gregory Kusiak, CMBS president. “We considered a number of products, but Zotec Partners showed us they truly understand automated process flow in the radiology billing business. Their data analysis reporting tool, Decision Support, is a gold mine for anyone involved in the proactive management of a high volume physician practice.”
• National Home Health Care (NHHC, Scarsdale, New York) reported completing a previously announced merger with affiliates of Angelo Gordon & Co. (New York).
Transaction close was subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including the approval of the New York State Department of Health. On Nov. 16, 2007, NHHC and Gordon received the requisite approval from the New York Department of Health. On Nov. 21, NHHC entered into financing arrangements with GMAC Commercial Finance.
NHHC’s shareholders will receive $12.75 a share in cash, other than Frederick Fialkow, to whom a portion of his merger consideration will be paid by promissory note. In addition, all NHHC shareholders, other than the directors and officers of NHHC and their families, will receive an additional 10 cents a share in cash in settlement of the class action law suit, subject to the court approval of the settlement.
• IPC The Hospitalist Company (North Hollywood, California) said it has acquired a hospitalist practice at St. Mary’s Hospital (Tucson, Arizona), a member of the Carondelet Health Network and the Ascension Hospital System.
Atif Khan, MD, and Talal Alsbiei, MD, will join the IPC hospitalist program already established at St. Mary’s that provides hospitalist services with 24/7 coverage for unassigned patients admitted through the emergency department and those directly referred by their primary care providers or specialists.
Plans are to add four or five full-time hospitalists within the year to accommodate the growing number of patients admitted to St. Mary’s.