A Medical Device Daily

Langer (Deer Park, New York) reported that on Dec. 15 it signed an agreement to purchase all of the assets of Regal Medical Supply (Granbury, Texas), through Langer's subsidiary Regal Acquisition Co.

The purchase price is about $1.64 million, including the satisfaction of certain obligations to affiliated parties in exchange for the delivery of excess working capital. The consideration will be funded through the issuance of shares of Langer common stock. The acquisition is expected to close in 1Q07.

Regal is a board for orthotist/prosthetist certification accredited suppliers of contracture management products and services focused on the long term care market with 24 sales representatives covering both chain and independently operated skilled nursing and assisted living facilities in 22 states.

“As we have stated on our quarterly earnings conference calls, three important pieces around our strategy for our legacy orthotics business have been defined as an increased focus on markets outside of our historical markets, a focus on larger multi-location institutional clients, as well as the ability to receive higher average selling prices for our products by providing an additional fulfillment and, in some cases, billing services,“ said Gray Hudkins, company president/CEO. “We believe the Regal acquisition allows us to take a meaningful step toward the achievement of each of these prongs of our strategy.“

Langer makes medical products targeting the orthopedic, orthotic and prosthetic markets.

Gene Logic (Gaithersburg, Maryland) reported completing the sale of its Preclinical Division to Bridge Pharmaceuticals (South San Francisco, California), a global contract research organization. The purchase price was $15 million (a portion of which will be held in escrow for up to one year to guarantee certain obligations under the agreement), subject to adjustment for certain changes in working capital and the assumption of certain liabilities.

Gene Logic said the sale will allow it to focus resources on drug repositioning and continue exploration of strategic alternatives for its genomics resources in molecular diagnostics and clinical biomarker development.

The company noted that the sale of the Preclinical Division is a milestone in the execution of its strategic plan.

In other dealmaking news:

• Luna Innovations (Roanoke, Virginia) has entered into a technology transfer and licensing agreement with Coherent (Santa Clara, California), giving Luna the right to manufacture and sell the former Iolon Apollo line of swept tunable lasers, miniaturized, external-cavity lasers. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Luna acquired manufacturing equipment and inventory previously used by Coherent to manufacture the lasers, as well as non-exclusive licenses to Coherent's patents and other intellectual property rights related to the transferred technology.

“We entered into this agreement with Coherent to allow us to compete more effectively in Luna's existing fiber optic test and measurement markets by providing our customers with fast, flexible and cost-effective test and measurement products,“ said Kent Murphy, Luna CEO and chairman. “Acquiring this laser technology also allows us to aggressively pursue business opportunities in new markets such as industrial and medical sensing.“

Luna said tunable laser technology is a key element in its existing fiber optic test, measurement and sensing product line that employ frequency-tuned lasers to measure various aspects of the transmission properties of telecommunications fiber optic components and systems.

Luna develops technologies in molecular technology and sensing solutions. Luna has successfully developed products for the energy, telecommunications, life sciences and defense industries.

• Eclipsys (Boca Raton, Florida) said it has acquired Van Slyck & Associates (VSA; Phoenix), a patient classification, acuity-driven nurse staffing service and software company. Terms were not disclosed.

Since 2004, Eclipsys has offered Sunrise Patient Acuity, a module that includes VSA's patient acuity methodology embedded into the interdisciplinary clinical documentation capabilities of Eclipsys' Sunrise Clinical Manager. Sunrise Patient Acuity taps the VSA methodology so patient acuity is calculated as an automatic byproduct of nursing documentation. With the acquisition of VSA, Eclipsys will be able to expand its integrated solutions' staffing and productivity management and reporting capabilities, it said.

Eclipsys said the transaction will not have a material impact on results of '06 operations.

Eclipsys is a provider of information software, clinical content and professional services to help healthcare organizations across North America improve clinical, financial and customer-satisfaction outcomes.