Health Industry Today articles from February 1994

Health Industry Today archives from February 1994

Owens & Minor knocking on Baxter's back door with Stuart Medical buy. (Owens and Minor Inc.; Baxter Healthcare Corp. Hospital Supply Div.; Stuart Medical Inc.)
February 1, 1994... An aggressive move initiated by Stuart Medical in December to merge with Owens & Minor combines the number two and three medical-surgical supply distributors into a new company that is only a few major deals away from overtaking distribution...

PTCA catheters sales to rise despite use of alternative methods. (percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty)
February 1, 1994... PTCA catheter manufacturers can expect continued revenue growth throughout the decade, but strong competition will challenge the marketplace as alternative methods to angioplasty become more readily accepted by physicians. Percutaneous...

Baxter reinstated by VA; company's COO resigns. (Baxter International Inc.; Department of Veterans Affairs)
February 1, 1994... The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reinstated Baxter International, Inc., Deerfield, Ill., Dec. 22, after a four-month suspension, but the company lost its second-in-command and a lucrative contract with the VA. The VA said Baxter had...

McGaw expanding lines with IVAX buyout; signs two major deals with VA and Epic. (McGaw Inc.; IVAX Corp.; Department of Veterans Affairs; Epic Healthcare Group Inc.)
February 1, 1994... The acquisition of McGaw by generic drug manufacturer IVAX will position McGaw--now the third leading supplier of I.V.s--to better compete with the number one and two market players, Baxter Healthcare Corp., Deerfield, Ill., and Abbott...

Medtronic outbids St. Jude in Electromedics purchase. (Medtronic Inc.; St. Jude Medical Inc.; Electromedics Inc.)
February 1, 1994... Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, purchased autologous transfusion equipment manufacturer Electromedics, Inc., Parker, Colo. for $97 million in December, ending a bidding battle for Electromedics between Medtronic and St. Jude Medical, Inc., St....

FDA closes two Puritan-Bennett plants; reports investigation findings. (Food and Drug Administration; Puritan-Bennett Corp.)
February 1, 1994... The Food & Drug Administration ordered Puritan-Bennett to close two manufacturing plants and announced that a fire at a Brooklyn hospital was not caused by a ventilator manufactured by Puritan-Bennett Corp., Overland Park, Kan. About 100...

Bristol-Myers Squibb to lay off 5,000 over next two years. (Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.)
February 1, 1994... Yet another major health care manufacturing company is trimming its workforce as Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMS), New York, announced that the company will lay off 10% of its workforce or 5,000 employees in the next two years. This is the...

Baxter wins AmeriNet agreement and expanded Premier contract. (Baxter Healthcare Corp. Hospital Supply Div.; AmeriNet Inc.; Premier Health Alliance Inc.)
February 1, 1994... Baxter Hospital Supply, McGaw Park, Ill., signed a three-year, $40 million agreement with St. Louis-based AmeriNet to service 40 of the group's facilities in the state of Washington. The agreement took effect in December. Also, Baxter Hospital...

Siemens Pacesetter gains ISO 9001 approval for cardiac devices. (Siemens Pacesetter Inc.)
February 1, 1994... Siemens Pacesetter, Inc., Sylmar, Calif., expects its recently awarded ISO 9001 certification to slightly increase U.S. sales of the company's implantable devices for cardiac rhythm management, even though the certification is primarily intended...

Picker awarded DPSC contract valued at $6.2 million. (Picker International Inc.; Department of Defense's Defense Personnel Support Center)
February 1, 1994... Picker International, Inc., Cleveland, won a contract award with the Department of Defense's Defense Personnel Support Center (DPSC) worth $6.2 million to produce X-ray systems for field-deployable units of the U.S. Army. The agreement took...

Survival Technology to supply auto-delivery systems to DPSC. (Survival Technology Inc.; U.S. Defense Personnel Support Center)
February 1, 1994... Survival Technology Inc. (STI), Rockville, Md. signed a $5.6 million agreement with the U.S. Defense Personnel Support Center's (DPSC) Washington, D.C. Region for auto-delivery systems of nerve gas antidotes. The agreement, signed in December,...

Baxter working with Stericycle to develop recycling program. (Baxter Healthcare Corp.; Stericycle Inc.)
February 1, 1994... Baxter Healthcare Corp., Deerfield, Ill., invested $8 million in January for 6% of Stericycle, Inc., Deerfield, Ill., a medical-waste disposal company, as part of an investment to develop new programs for recycling infectious waste into other...

Abbott to sell suction canisters under VHA+PLUS brand name. (Abbott Laboratories; Voluntary Hospitals of America Inc.)
February 1, 1994... Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill., signed a five-year agreement to manufacture suction canisters and related supplies under the VHA+PLUS brand name for Voluntary Hospitals of America (VHA), Irving, Tex. The agreement took effect in November...

Konica signs five-year JPC contract covering all x-ray film. (Konica Medical Corp.; Joint Purchasing Corp.)
February 1, 1994... Konica Medical Corp., Wayne, N.J. signed a five-year agreement with New York-based Joint Purchasing Corp. (JPC) with an estimated value of $2 million over the life of the contract. The agreement takes effect March 31 and covers all of the...

Choosing the right trade show for your company.
February 1, 1994... The trade show is an important part of the marketing mix for health care industry manufacturers and distributors. Select the right show, and you'll return home with lots of new business. Choose the wrong show, and you'll come home frustrated,...

Sales of cost cutting products will remain high. (health care costs)
February 1, 1994... A study conducted by Premier Health Alliance, Inc., Westchester, Ill., suggests that sales will remain high for products designed to cut health care costs. No matter what the final version of health care reform entails, hospital executives...

Buyers want no-frills imaging equipment from manufacturers exhibiting at RSNA. (Radiological Society of North America)
February 1, 1994... Companies attending the November meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) noticed changes in their customers' demands. Most of the changes were driven by cost-cutting measures spurred by health care reform, according to...

Isolyser cutting waste disposal costs with new patented polymer. (Isolyser Co.)
February 1, 1994... Isolyser Co., Norcross, Ga., will introduce a line of disposable surgical products in March made from the company's patented polymer that dissolves into a biodegradable liquid when washed in hot water. The products--drapes, garments, masks,...

Medline adds to reusable gown line with Cool-Tex. (Medline Industries Inc.)
February 1, 1994... Medline Industries, Inc., Mundelein, Ill., is marketing its new Cool-Tex reusable surgical gowns for use in the 20% to 30% of surgical procedures considered "wet." Medline released the gowns in November and is promoting them as the best in...

Medtronic tissue valve designed for use by elderly patients. (Medtronic Inc.)
February 1, 1994... Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, is marketing its new Hancock M.O. II porcine tissue valve as the best valve for treating older patients who have calcified heart tissue. The valve has been on the market since December, when it received final Food &...

Varian making replacement parts for Siemens CT scanners. (Varian Associates Inc.; Siemens Medical Corp.; computed tomography)
February 1, 1994... Varian Associates, Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., is marketing its new Varian GS-2030 computed tomography (CT) tube as a low-cost replacement tube for CT scanners manufactured by Siemens Medical Corp., Iselin, N.J. The replacement tube was released in...

Pyxis upgrades SupplyStation System to accommodate space constraints. (Pyxis Corp.)
February 1, 1994... Pyxis Corp., San Diego, introduced an upgraded version of its SupplyStation System to better address the space constraints of hospitals. The upgraded system was released in December. The SupplyStation System Main and Auxiliary stations are...

Roche Diagnostic Systems. (executive appointments)
February 1, 1994... Roche Diagnostic Systems, Branchburg, N.J., a subsidiary of Hoffmann-LaRoche Inc., Branchburg, N.J., appointed Thomas A. Crowley vice president and director of the Clinical Business Unit. He will be responsible for sales, marketing, technical and...

Olympus America. (executive appointment)
February 1, 1994... Olympus America, Lake Success, N.Y., appointed Kathleen Pearce to the position of product manager. Her primary area of responsibility centers on toxicology, which includes Olympus' DSR line of assays for the detection of drugs of abuse in urine....

Luther Medical Products Inc. (executive appointment)
February 1, 1994... Luther Medical Products, Inc., Tustin, Calif., appointed David Rollo as president and chief executive officer. The appointment, which concludes a 10-month executive search, is effective immediately. Rollo will also join the Luther Medical board....

Liquid Carbonic. (executive appointment)
February 1, 1994... Dick Rymer has been promoted to the newly-created position of vice president-quality, safety and environment for Liquid Carbonic, Oak Brook, Ill. John Romane will fill Rymer's previous position as director of quality. Rymer joined the company...

Medtronic Inc. (executive appointment)
February 1, 1994... Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, promoted Bonnie Labosky to general manager of the Medtronic Promcon Components division. Labosky joined Medtronic in 1989 from SPSS, Inc., a developer of statistical and graphics software. She has been instrumental...

The Health Industry Manufacturers Assn. (new officials)
February 1, 1994... The Health Industry Manufacturers Assn. (HIMA), Washington, D.C., added two members to the Technology and Regulatory Affairs Dept. Susan K. Zagame was named director, regulatory affairs and counsel, and Anna J. Baldwin was named director,...

Merck & Co., Inc. (executive appointment)
February 1, 1994... Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., has named Peter Kovacs president of its Kelco division. He succeeds Paul F. Mosher, who is retiring. Kovacs joined Kelco in 1967 as a chemist. He has since held various research, sales and marketing positions in...