Inverness Medical Innovations (Waltham, Massachusetts), a manufacturer of rapid diagnostic products for the consumer and professional markets, reported that ITI Life Sciences, a Scottish economic and business development initiative, has agreed to provide it with $57 million over three years to partially fund R&D programs.

The programs will focus on identifying novel biomarkers and near-patient and home use tests for cardiovascular and other diseases.

Inverness will retain all rights to intellectual property arising out of the programs to the extent relevant to human healthcare, while ITI will acquire exclusive rights to the intellectual property for other uses.

As for specifically what types of cardiac diagnostic tests the company is studying, Director of Corporate Relations Doug Guarino told Medical Device Daily, "We haven't given any specifics on that. We may speak to that later in the year. We do expect the first products, with a little wind at our back, to come out of that in '07."

Near-patient testing, which is the focus of the Inverness consumer and point-of-care businesses, is being used by clinicians and patients for the diagnosis and management of chronic conditions and offers benefits to both healthcare providers and patients.

Testing at home allows patients to monitor their disease and manage their condition more effectively. The global market for near-patient testing is estimated to be worth $3.3 billion and growing at around 8% per annum.

The funding from ITI will allow for expansion of Inverness' cardiology-related R&D efforts. Inverness said it has committed to invest $72 million of its planned R&D spending in the programs covered by this funding over the next three years.

Inverness will establish a new research center in Stirling, Scotland, named Stirling Medical Innovations, where it will consolidate many of it ongoing cardiology programs and ultimately commercialize products arising from the successful efforts of the research and development.

Guarino noted that the company had worked with the Scottish government already.

"We had a precedent there, and there was a track record," he said. "It all just came together nicely."

He added shortly afterward, "We think it's a great opportunity for us, and we're very happy about being back in Scotland where we had great success."

In November, In Vivo Medical Diagnostics (IVMD; Inverness, Scotland) said that the company is supporting Inverness in its development of a Prothrombin Time monitor for use in U.S. clinical trials (MDD, Nov. 3, 2004).

The monitor is the first in a series of applications that measures the content and characteristics of blood through the use of the Hall Effect, a phenomenon that can be used to measure the change in magnetic fields at a molecular level. In Vivo Medical's collaboration with Inverness includes an agreement providing royalties upon commercialization.

Prothrombin time is a measure of the clotting ability of blood and is used by patients undergoing warfarin/coumadin anticoagulation therapy after a heart attack or stroke to ensure that drug levels are maintained at optimum levels.

Ron Zwanziger, CEO of Inverness, said: "We are delighted to be setting up this exciting new venture which highlights our long-term commitment to the field of cardiology. The innovative products to be developed by Stirling Medical Innovations will substantially change patient management and lifestyle. Patients can increasingly have the choice of monitoring their health at home, significantly reducing the need for them to visit the hospital. Home-based testing in cardiology, in particular, offers exciting new opportunities to patients and Inverness Medical Innovations intends to lead the world in developing this category."

Inverness Medical Innovations says it is exploring opportunities for its electrochemical systems and other technologies in a variety of applications.

ITI is an organization driving Scotland's plans to identify, develop technology-based intellectual assets in the life sciences sector. It is one of three new initiatives focused on areas where Scotland sees strong economic and business potential; the other areas being "techmedia" and energy.

In other contract news:

• EDS (Madison, Wisconsin), a provider of healthcare support to U.S. state governments, has been awarded a seven-year, $189.1 million contract to design and implement a new Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) for the State of Wisconsin. The contract also includes five one-year options.

The contract calls for a two-year development and implementation period followed by a five-year management term. EDS will implement its interChange Health System.

In addition to supporting the new MMIS, EDS will continue to operate the state's Decision Support System/Data Warehouse; Wisconsin Immunization Registry; Encounter Data System; and Lien, Estate and Affidavit Processor work flow system.

EDS said the contract extends a 27-year relationship between it and the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS), the agency providing healthcare to Wisconsin's poorest citizens. Since 1977, EDS has provided fiscal agent support for DHFS and operated its existing mainframe MMIS. EDS last year processed more than 32 million claims worth more than $4.2 billion from more than 42,000 state healthcare professionals.

• Respironics (Murrysville, Pennsylvania) reported that its Profile Drug Delivery subsidiary has secured a long-term supply agreement with CoTherix (South San Francisco). Respironics will provide CoTherix with its Prodose breath-actuated pulmonary drug delivery device for the U.S. launch of CoTherix's recently FDA approved product, Ventavis (iloprost) Inhalation Solution, for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in patients with New York Heart Association Class III or Class IV symptoms.

CoTherix licensed U.S. rights to Ventavis from Schering (Berlin) in October 2003. Schering markets the product in Europe and Australia.

Respironics' Prodose Adaptive Aerosol Delivery (AAD) technology responds to patients breathing patterns to deliver Ventavis as an inhaled therapy. AAD technology constantly analyzes the user's breathing pattern and synchronizes drug delivery with his or her inhalation cycle, for precise delivery and reproducible doses of inhaled therapies. Prodose has been used by PAH patients in Europe since 2003. The I-neb, Respironics' next-generation system with AAD technology, is a handheld, battery-operated device submitted to the FDA for clearance in November 2004.

Curtis Ruegg, PhD, CoTherix' senior vice president of technical operations, said, "In the future, we look forward to helping Respironics bring the next generation of AAD technology in the I-neb device to PAH patients using Ventavis."

Respironics manufactures products and develops programs serving the sleep and respiratory markets.