Medical Device Daily

GE Healthcare (Chalfont St. Giles, England) yesterday reported that it has made an offer to acquire Biacore International (Uppsala, Sweden), a provider of systems for protein interaction analysis, for ab-out SEK 3,220 million (about $390 million), through an offer of SEK 330 a share.

In a morning conference call, Peter Ehrenheim, CEO of GE Healthcare Lifesciences (Uppsala), cited a variety of commonalities between the two companies in terms of complementary products and vision.

Biacore develops instruments used to define and analyze the characteristics of proteins in terms of their binding ability and interactions with other molecules, an analysis seen as critical for a variety of biotech discovery efforts, primarily in drug development and diagnostics. Ehrenheim said these offerings would fit well with GE Healthcare's development of chromatography and electrofluorescence systems.

He additionally had high praise for the Biacore organization, saying the company “has great people. We're impressed by the way they've built the company and the great respect they enjoy from their customers.”

Looking to the ability to merge Biacore into GE Healthcare's operations, he said, “We feel really, really good about integration.”

Biacore's flagship platform is focused on surface plasmon resonance (SPR), an optical system enabling detection of unlabeled interactants in real time. SPR-based biosensors can determine active concentration, and characterization of proteins in terms of both affinity and kinetics. Used in proteomics, these systems provide insights into protein functionality, the role of proteins in normal and diseased states, and the influence of potential drug candidates. Its systems are used in antibody characterization, biomarker discovery, small-molecule characterization, and biopharma development and production, where GE claims a strong complementary presence.

Joe Hogan, president and CEO of GE Healthcare, said, “GE Healthcare and Biacore have a shared vision of the importance of life sciences research to future developments in improving global healthcare. Life sciences is a key area of growth for GE Healthcare, and Biacore is highly complementary and synergistic with our existing protein sciences business. Expanding on GE Healthcare's expertise in this area supports our objective of helping to diagnose and treat disease earlier.”

For Biacore, a key benefit of the acquisition is seen as expanded reliance on GE Healthcare's global sales network and already established customer base in protein sciences. Additionally, it is expected to benefit from GE Healthcare's large R&D investments in new technologies.

Biacore employs about 300 people worldwide, and operates R&D and manufacturing facilities in Uppsala, Sweden, where GE Healthcare Life Sciences is headquartered. Upon completion of the tender offer, GE Healthcare said it will combine the expertise of Biacore with GE Healthcare Life Sciences to create a center of excellence in Protein Science.

The companies said that GE Healthcare's offer represents a premium of 35% relative to Biacore's volume weighted average share price of SEK 245 on the SSE during the month ending 19 June and a premium of 17% relative to the closing share price of SEK 282 on the SSE on June 19, the last trading day before the announcement of the offer.

Pfizer (New York) holds 4 million shares in Biacore, representing about 41% of the share capital and voting rights in the company, and it has committed to accept the offer and tender its shares to GE Healthcare.

The board of Biacore unanimously recommended that shareholders of Biacore accept the offer.

BiaCore was founded in 1984 under the name of Pharmacia Biosensor AB after the merger of Linköping Institute of Technology and the Swedish National Defense Research Institute. In 1996 the company changed its name to BIAcore AB.

In other deal activity:

• Caducian (Houston), a healthcare software company, reported that Cerner (Kansas City, Missouri) has licensed the Caducian treatment protocol stability solution. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The Caducian solution – developed and tested in Houston at hospitals in the Texas Medical Center – enables a continuous analysis of patients' vital signs coming from bedside monitoring devices.

“The Caducian approach gives us the unique ability to effectively analyze and alert providers about data taken directly from a patient's bedside monitoring devices,” said Dr. James Fackler, vice president at Cerner and leader in Cerner Critical Care. “This ability raises the bar for patient standard of care.”

Caducian provides treatment protocol stability indicators derived from clinically monitored patient data.

Cerner says its mission is to take the paper chart out of healthcare, “eliminating error, variance and waste in the care process.”

• LHC Group (LaFayette, Louisiana), a provider of post-acute healthcare services in rural markets in the southern U.S., has agreed to purchase Lifeline Home Health Care, (Somerset, Kentucky) for $15 million in cash. The transaction does not include Lifeline's operations outside of Kentucky.

The acquisition – expected to close by July 31 – will be the largest ever by the LHC Group, it said.

The acquisition involves a patient census of about 2,400, as well as about 350 employees. LHC said it now will have 17 locations in 29 Kentucky counties with a population of over 750,000.

In 2005, Lifeline reported Kentucky-based revenue of about $23 million.

LHC Group is a provider of post-acute healthcare services primarily in rural markets in the southern United States. LHC Group provides home-based services through its home nursing agencies and hospices and facility-based services through its long-term acute care hospitals and rehabilitation facilities.

• MedCath and Carondelet Health Network (both Charlotte, North Carolina) reported an agreement for Car-ondelet to purchase the 58.8% of the Tucson Heart Hospital (Tucson, Arizona) owned by MedCath. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Deal closing is expected to take place within 90 days.

Carondelet Health owns 20% of the facility and physician partners own 21.2%. At transaction close, Carondelet, a provider of heart care for the Tucson community, will own 78.8% of the hospital. Upon completion of the purchase, MedCath will own interest in and operate 11 hospitals in eight states.

MedCath is a healthcare provider focused on the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

Carondelet Health is a Catholic, non-profit healthcare system founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.