A Medical Device Daily

Elekta (Stockholm, Sweden) reported completing its acquisition of Impac Medical Systems (Mountain View, California), following approval of the transaction by Impac stockholders on Monday. The purchase has been valued at about $190 million. It was first announced in mid-January (Medical Device Daily, Jan. 19, 2005).

The vote was to approve the merger of Impac with a subsidiary of Elekta. The merger became immediately effective, with Impac becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Elekta. Under the plan of merger, Elekta will pay $24 in cash for each share of Impac common stock outstanding.

Impac's common stock no longer trades on the Nasdaq.

The companies have said that the merger will enable the offering of a "a fully integrated, seamless solution addressing the spectrum of cancer care, from diagnosis through treatment planning, treatment delivery and follow-up" (MDD, April 4, 2005).

Elekta, founded in 1972, is an international medical-technology group, providing advanced clinical solutions for high-precision radiation treatment of cancer and for non-invasive or minimally invasive treatment of brain disorders.

Its clinical solutions include the Leksell Gamma Knife for non-invasive treatment of brain surgery and Elekta Synergy for image-guided radiation therapy, as well as associated software systems.

Elekta's systems and solutions are used at more than 2,000 hospitals around the world to treat cancer and to diagnose and treat brain disorders, including tumors, vascular malformations and functional disorders.

Founded in 1990, Impac is a provider of oncology management software and has expanded its core system to include a complete electronic medical record for radiation and medical oncology, digital image management, full-featured practice management, laboratory information systems and cancer registry.

Impac also enables the connection to multiple healthcare information and imaging systems via the HL7 and DICOM standards.

Xenomics files for Italian patent

Molecular diagnostics firm Xenomics (New York), a developer of next-generation medical DNA technologies, has filed a provisional patent in Italy for its technology enabling the detection of Transrenal-DNA of HIV and tuberculosis through the safe and non-invasive process of urine sampling.

"The filing of the provisional patent on our breakthrough detection of TB and HIV-DNA in the urine of AIDS patients marks a continued step in our strategy to aggressively expand the company's intellectual property portfolio and to protect that property with broad and well-enforced U.S. and international patents," said Dr. Randy White, CEO of Xenomics. "To manage this critical area, we recently established our Department of Licensing and Intellectual Property, and appointed veteran patent agent Dr. David Ladner to lead the department. Through filings such as this, Dr. Ladner is spearheading the expansion of our intellectual property portfolio."

The company said it believes the application of its patented technology platform may enable the creation of more accurate testing using urine specimens. The technology also provides the ability to simultaneously detect both HIV and tuberculosis, a common co-infection in AIDS patients, with a single urine sample, and has implications for the detection and treatment of residual HIV infections.

The discovery was made at the company's joint venture with the National Institute for Infectious Diseases (Rome).

Because the technology was developed in Italy, international patent regulations require that the patent be initially filed in that country where the discovery was made. The initial filing will lead to the filing of the broader European patent, and then to the U.S. patent.

Xenomics is developing and commercializing proprietary gateway DNA testing technology that has the potential to significantly expand the field of molecular diagnostics, currently a $1.5 billion segment of the healthcare and biotechnology industry.

Advent closes on third fund at EUR 330M

Advent International (London), a global private equity investor, has closed its third fund for investment in Central Europe, ACEE III, at EUR 330 million.

One of the largest funds for investment in the central European region, ACEE III administrators said the fund will invest in high-growth companies, focusing on businesses in healthcare, media, communications, construction materials, financial services and retail. Advent says it was the first international private equity firm to raise, in 1994, a fund for investment across Central Europe.

Led by Joanna James, George Swirski and Chris Mruck, the team invests through local offices in Warsaw, Budapest and Bucharest and through investment partners in Prague, Bratislava and Istanbul. Advent's two previous funds for investment in Central Europe have invested in 26 companies. Thirteen of these have been acquired by strategic buyers or had initial public offerings on local and international exchanges.

Commenting on the closing of the new fund, James said: "We expect deals to continue to increase in number and size. It is an exciting time to be working in Central Europe, with all the changes brought about by actual or prospective EU membership. This area is showing by far the highest growth in Europe, and we expect this to be sustained for some considerable time to come."

Major investors in ACEE III include Teachers' Private Capital, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Alpinvest.

Lifeline gets Greek MataScope order

Lifeline Biotechnologies (Reno, Nevada) reported that an initial order of its early breast detection microendoscope system, the MastaScope, has been shipped to Greece.

This initial shipment is expected to lead to future sales in Greece, the company said.

There are now MastaScope systems used in Egypt, Croatia, China and Puerto Rico as well as the U.S., according to Lifeline.

The MastaScope is used in the early detection of cancer and other abnormalities of the breast. The MastaScope has completed development and has entered the marketplace in the U.S. and internationally. The First Warning System, for assisting in the early detection of breast cancer, and the OvaScope, for assisting in the early detection of ovarian cancer, are continuing to be developed by the company.

The company also said it continues to carry out R&D of its premiere technology, the First Warning System, an early warning breast cancer detection system.

Lifeline develops technologies focused on prevention, early detection and diagnosis of disease conditions.