Reflect Scientific (Orem, Utah) should have a full platter of acquisitions to feast on by the time this year’s Thanksgiving dinner bell rings.
Reflect has signed an agreement to acquire Image Labs International (Bozeman, Montana) — its fourth acquisition of the year — and expects to report a fifth and final acquisition Monday, Michael Dancy, a spokesman for the company told Medical Device Daily.
The company has agreed to pay $1 million before Dec. 31, unless otherwise agreed to by the parties, for development of the Image Labs business.
No other financial terms were disclosed.
Reflect reported its intentions to acquire Image Labs in September (Medical Device Daily, Sept. 7, 2006). Dancy said Image Labs is projected to rake in up to $5.1 million in revenue for Reflect in 2007.
Reflect will employ Brian Smithgall, president of Image Labs, for an initial three-year term. It also will employ another person associated with a business segment of Image Labs.
Kim Boyce, CEO of Reflect, said the acquisition “complements our analytical tools business including additional automation engineering. Our management team feels this acquisition will add significantly to the production of our Cryometrix products, which has demonstrated tremendous opportunity for our company’s growth.”
Established in 1993, Image Labs makes automation equipment. The primary product lines focus in the areas of automated inspection, measurement and material handling.
Reflect reported the acquisition of All Temp Engineering (ATE; San Jose, California) earlier this year (MDD, Aug. 8, 2006), on the heels of acquiring another California company, Cryomastor (MDD July 6, 2006).
Cryomastor develops ultra-low temperature freezers for the biotech, life science, hospitals, military, research and disease control industries.
The cost of one freezer starts at $80,000, and it is not uncommon for a company to have several thousand units, Dancy said. He said ATE is the service arm of Cryomastor. That deal followed the company’s acquisition of JMST Systems (Colorado Springs, Colorado) in April (MDD, April 6, 2006), an OEM making chemical detection instruments used in the pharma, biotech and homeland security markets.
Reflect said it began eyeing the acquisitions last year after completing its reorganization as a public company, putting it in position to target an acquisition strategy and leverage equity funding to “take advantage of the numerous biotechnologies available to the company.”
Reflect has been in business for nearly 14 years, Dancy said, supplying the “stuff you would see in a CSI lab.”
“They have built a pretty significant customer base and good relationships with the universities,” Dancy said. “They went public to acquire these companies and make their technologies available to their customers and create some more synergies.”
In other deals:
• Parexel International (Boston) has completed the $65 million acquisition of California Clinical Trials Medical Group (CCT) and Behavioral and Medical Research (BMR). CCT and BMR provide a broad range of specialty Phase I-IV clinical research services through four clinical sites in California.
The acquisitions expand Parexel’s clinical pharmacology capacity to more than 400 beds. Parexel said it also brings new expertise to its offerings in the area of bridging studies, especially Japanese bridging studies, and adds depth to its expertise in central nervous system clinical trials, neuroscience drug development and sleep studies.
• Introgen Therapeutics (Austin, Texas) said it has obtained a worldwide license to patents from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (Houston) for the delivery of biologically active proteins, polypeptides and peptides using nanoparticle delivery complexes.
According to Introgen, the technology has demonstrated therapeutic efficacy against human lung cancers in animal models. The licensed technology is directed to specially designed nanoparticles that deliver therapeutic bioactive proteins, polypeptides and peptides to targeted cells, such as cancers.
David Nance, Introgen’s CEO, said, “We expect these technologies to enable important advances in the targeted delivery of a variety of therapeutic biologics.”
Introgen develops molecular therapeutics, immunotherapies, vaccines and nanoparticle therapies to treat a range of cancers using tumor suppressors and cytokines.
• Almost Family (Louisville, Kentucky) said it will acquire the assets of all the Medicare-certified home health agencies owned and operated by Mederi (Coconut Grove, Florida).
The agreement calls for an initial purchase price of about $19 million, consisting of $13 million cash, $4 million in a note payable and 100,000 shares of Almost Family stock. Additionally, up to $5.5 million in cash may be paid contingent upon achievement of certain revenue targets in the two years following closing.
The cash portion of the transaction will be funded from borrowings available from the company’s senior credit facility with JP Morgan Chase Bank. Subject to customary conditions, the transaction is expected to close Dec. 3.
Mederi, a Medicare-certified home health agency, was founded in 1973 to provide healthcare to homebound patients. Almost Family, founded in 1976, is a regional provider of home health nursing services.