A Medical Device Daily

Stryker (Kalamazoo, Michigan) said that it will spend more than $100 million to acquire OtisMed (Alameda, California) a, software company, and bone-cutting products from two other companies.

Stryker, which has been sitting on more than $2 billion in cash, will buy OtisMed which is developing software that could help orthopedic surgeons custom-fit replacement knees.

Stryker also will acquire the assets used to produce Sonopet Ultrasonic Aspirators, a bone-cutting tool, and its accessories from Mutoh (Tokyo) and Synergetics USA (O'Fallon, Missouri). Those products will eventually be moved to Stryker's Portage Instruments division.

Stryker said it will make $67 million in upfront payments in the two deals, plus potential future milestone and royalty payments of up to $36 million.

The closing of these combined transactions is anticipated to occur prior to Dec. 31, 2009, subject to agreed upon conditions.

Stryker VP of corporate affairs J. Patrick Anderson said the deal could result in new jobs at Stryker in Portage, but said it's too early to say for sure.

"That deal won't be completed until the end of the year," Anderson said. "We'll look to integrate those products at some point in the future."

OtisMed's software is still in the development stage and has not been authorized by the government for use in medical procedures, Anderson said. It will be organized under the company's Orthopaedics division and remain in Alameda, California.

The other agreement provides for Synergetics to do the following: sell to Stryker certain assets associated with the marketing and sales of the Mutoh console and handpiece products; supply disposable ultrasonic instrument tips and certain other consumable products used in conjunction with the Sonopet/Omni ultrasonic aspirator console and handpieces; and pursue certain development projects for new products associated with Stryker's intraoperative ultrasound products.

"The Mutoh Sonopet ultrasonic aspirator equipment has proven to be a remarkable advance in precise intraoperative fragmentation and emulsification of soft tissue and bone, which in conjunction with Synergetics' ultrasonic instrument tips, have expanded the surgeon's resources in performing neurocranial and neurospinal surgery. With Stryker marketing these products in the future, customers can look forward to the excellent customer support and service for which Stryker is well known," said David Hable, president/CEO of Synergetics.

The Omni product line, including the console and handpieces manufactured by Mutoh in Japan, and the instrument tips and other disposable products manufactured by Synergetics in its O'Fallon, Missouri facility, accounted for about $3.5 million and $4.1 million respectively of Synergetics' revenue in the trailing twelve months ending Oct. 31, 2009.

In other dealmaking news:

• Diagnostic products maker Qiagen (Venlo, the Netherlands) said it is buying privately held diagnostic test maker SABiosciences (Fredrick, Maryland) for about $90 million in cash.

Qiagen said the company has about 100 employees and focuses on tests used in biomedical research and in the development of future drugs and diagnostics. The company's primary product family includes more than 100 real-time PCR assay panels designed for high-performance analysis of DNA, RNA, epigenetic and microRNA targets in biological pathways associated both with specific diseases such as cancer, diabetes, immune and cardiovascular disorders, as well as with pathways such as apoptosis (programmed cell death), signal transduction and toxicology.

The deal is expected to close in December. Qiagen said SABiosciences will have about $24 million in sales in 2010.

"SABiosciences is a leader in design and commercialization of disease- and pathway-based PCR assay panels", said Peer Schatz, CEO of Qiagen. "These assay panels are designed for use with and leveraged by Qiagen's sample and assay technologies and can be run on Qiagen instruments. Subject to final closing, the transaction can create great value for both our strategy in pharma and our strategy in diagnostics. The addition of SABiosciences will boost our biological content engine significantly by adding to our position as a premium partner for the pharmaceutical industry and to the use of this position to yield diagnostic content for prevention, profiling, and, most significantly, personalized healthcare."

"We are very delighted with this merger", said Li Shen, president of SABiosciences. "The combination of SABiosciences' strong content development and bioinformatics capability with Qiagen's leadership in molecular biology and its global footprint allow us to take our proven PCR Array technology to the next level. Together with Qiagen we can roll out this technology internationally and bundle it with one of the industry's most reputed product portfolios, thereby providing even more value to our customers."

SABiosciences' operations are located in the immediate vicinity of Qiagen's North American headquarters based in Germantown, Maryland and Gaithersburg, Maryland. This proximity is expected to contribute to a rapid and smooth integration of SABiosciences into Qiagen operations.

• MedPro Imaging (Waukesha, Wisconsin), a provider of new and refurbished ultrasound solutions, said the company has acquired MC Ultrasound (Chicago), an on-site ultrasound provider for ultrasound staffing and services throughout the Chicago area.

"MC Ultrasound has an outstanding reputation for quality services and customer service," said Charles Jahnke, president/CEO of MedPro Imaging. "We share the common goal of providing the right solutions to fulfill our customers' ultrasound imaging needs. This acquisition is a natural addition to our growing family of products and services."

MC Ultrasound provides services such as cardiovascular (adult and pediatric), vascular, women's health, abdominal, small parts and musculoskeletal exams. Board-certified radiologists are available to provide interpretations in a timely manner, in addition to immediate technical findings following every exam. MC Ultrasound will become a division of MedPro Imaging.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

• Life Technologies (Carlsbad, California) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire BioTrove (Woburn, Massachusetts) for an undisclosed amount.

BioTrove's primary technology is the OpenArray platform, a high throughput gene expression and genotyping analysis system based on a flexible array format that enables researchers to perform more than 3,000 PCR genotyping or qPCR gene expression assays at a time.

"BioTrove's technology is an important addition to our extensive PCR portfolio," said Greg Lucier, chairman/CEO of Life Technologies. "This acquisition and other enhancements recently made to our PCR offerings enable us to remain the leader in this space, and exemplify how Life Technologies is setting new technology standards in areas important to the company's future growth."

This acquisition builds on a collaboration that Applied Biosystems entered into with BioTrove in 2007. At that time, Applied Biosystems assumed responsibility for commercialization of the OpenArray business for genotyping applications.