A Medical Device Daily Staff Report

Spire (Bedford, Massachusetts) said it has received a Small Business Innovation Research Phase I grant for $176,244 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health to develop selenium-coated dialysis catheters. The coatings are intended to prevent bacterial attachment and colonization that can ultimately lead to biofilm formation and device-centered infection.

Infection is a major problem affecting function and longevity of dialysis catheters, Spire said. Catheter-related sepsis occurs at alarmingly high rates, and often necessitates intervention or catheter removal. The grant will allow Spire to develop a new generation of antimicrobial coatings for these devices, the company said.

“Selenium, which is an essential dietary requirement, acts catalytically to produce superoxide radicals that disrupt bacterial cells. Since it acts catalytically, the coating will remain on the surface and be active permanently, unlike conventional eluting coatings that are often gone within 30 days and that can elicit deleterious systemic effects. The selenium coating may provide significant benefits to dialysis patients by preserving access and reducing secondary complications resulting from infected catheters. Ultimately, the technology could be used to augment Spire’s growing line of dialysis catheters,” said Mark Little, CEO of Spire.

Spire provides biomedical devices, advanced medical device surface treatment processes, optoelectronic devices, and solar energy products, all based upon a common technology platform.

In other grants/contracts news:

• Premier Purchasing Partners (San Diego, California) reported a new agreement for blood bank analyzers, reagents, consumables and service with Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (Raritan, New Jersey), a Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems company.

The 36-month agreement is available to both acute-care and continuum-of-care members of the Premier alliance. It includes automated analyzers and consumables as well as a full line of traditional blood bank reagents.

Serving 1,700 hospitals and 42,000 other healthcare sites, Premier considers itself the largest healthcare alliance in the U.S.

• Bacterin International (Belgrade, Montana) a biologic company and manufacturer of elutive bioactive coatings for medical devices, has entered into a license agreement withOsteotech (Eatontown, New Jersey).

Under the agreement, Bacterin receives a nonexclusive license to Osteotech’s U.S. Patent Nos. 5,284,655 and 5,290,558 relating to flowable demineralized bone powder compositions, which are two of the patents that underlie Osteotech’s proprietary Grafton DBM line of tissue grafts. These same patents were the subject of litigation in 2001 and were found to be valid by a federal court jury. The agreement also provides Osteotech with option rights to certain Bacterin technology and intellectual property.

Bacterin said the relationship will assist it in developing new options for transplant recipients, ultimately improving their quality of life.

Bacterin has developed bioactive coating technologies suitable for a variety of medical device applications. Bacterin’s anti-infective coatings prevent microbial (biofilm) attachment and growth, thus significantly reducing bacterial adhesion associated with invasive medical devices.

Aside from enhancing medical devices, it is Bacterin’s belief that allografts can also benefit from proprietary coating technologies.

Osteotech is a provider of human bone and bone connective tissue for transplantation.

This is the first license agreement between the two companies.

• LifeWatch Holding (Buffalo Grove, Illinois) reported that it has signed a U.S. national agreement with UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company , an affiliate of UnitedHealth Group (Minnetonka, Minnesota) that will provide persons insured by UnitedHealthcare in-network access to LifeWatch cardiac monitoring services and technologies.

LifeWatch is an independent provider of remote cardiac arrhythmia monitoring devices and services in the U.S., which assist physicians and patients in the early detection and treatment of arrhythmia,

UnitedHealthcare provides a full spectrum of consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services, helping 25 million individual consumers nationwide achieve improved health and well-being through various health service systems.

• Gateway (Irvine, California) the nation’s third-largest personal computer (PC) company, reported that it has signed a multi-year contract with Poudre Valley Health System (Fort Collins, Colorado) to serve as the sole PC hardware supplier for its healthcare facilities.

The initial $3 million technology agreement includes Gateway servers, notebook PCs, all-in-one computers and desktop PCs that will power Medical Center of the Rockies’ key business applications. Gateway is also furnishing the new hospital with flat-screen displays for use in patient rooms, conference rooms and public facilities.