Health Industry Today articles from July 1996

Health Industry Today archives from July 1996

Ultrasound sales still slow, but comeback looms on horizon. (ultrasonic medical diagnostic equipment)(Industry Overview)
July 1, 1996... The popularity of ultrasound devices, products that draw their inspiration from the tracking of submarines with sonar in World War II, began to blossom back in the 1960s. The relatively inexpensive, noninvasive nature of the modality spurred its...

Cyberspace marketing quickly gaining favor among manufacturers. (marketing medical equipment via the Internet)(includes related articles on the Internet and Medtronic Inc.)
July 1, 1996... In a high-tech medical device industry, manufacturers are leaning more heavily than ever on cyberspace to boost their marketing efforts. A show of hands at the recent annual meeting of the Medical Marketing Assn. (MMA) in Keystone, Colo., showed...

MADIT results released at NASPE could lead to boom in ICD segment. (Multi-Center Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial; North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology; implantable cardiac defibrillators)
July 1, 1996... Positive results from the first clinical trial that demonstrates conclusively the effectiveness of implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs) was the most important news that came from the recent annual conference of the North American Society of...

Spurned by Premier, Owens & Minor reconnects with Purchase Connection.
July 1, 1996... Owens & Minor Inc. picked up one major contract award in recent weeks, but then found itself a victim of the big GPO merger that created the mammoth super group Premier Inc. Following a lengthy RFP review process, the Richmond, Va.-based...

Feds caution docs against advertising off-label excimer laser use.
July 1, 1996... Off-label use of excimer lasers is still a matter of doctor's discretion, says the FDA in a recent statement on the issue. But physicians who "market or promote" lasers for laser in situ keratomileusis, or LASIK - an alternative, developing...

Data quest likely prompted Maxxim to pay $147 million for Sterile Concepts. (Maxxim Medical Inc.; Sterile Concepts Holdings Inc.)
July 1, 1996... The long-awaited merger between custom procedure pack competitors Maxxim Medical Inc., Sugar Land, Texas, and Sterile Concepts Holdings Inc., Richmond, Va., was a matter of Maxxim satisfying its pursuit of data on hospital custom pack usage and...

Advanced Sterilization Products. (supply contract with AmeriNet Inc.)
July 1, 1996... Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP), Irvine, Calif., reached agreement with St. Louis-based AmeriNet on a two-year contract that makes ASP the exclusive supplier of the STERRAD[R] sterilization system. The contract, which took effect June 3, is...

Isolyser Co. Inc. (distribution contract with VWR Scientific Products)
July 1, 1996... Isolyser Co. Inc., Norcross, Ga., signed an agreement with VWR Scientific Products, West Chester, Pa., under which VWR will distribute Isolyser's lines of OREX[R] Degradables to certain industrial markets. VWR expects to sell a minimum of $4...

Angelica Corp. (signs contract with BJC Health Systems)
July 1, 1996... Angelica Corp., St. Louis, signed an agreement with BJC Health System, a major integrated delivery system that is also based in St. Louis. The two-year contract, which is valued at approximately $10 million, covers total linen service to more...

Tecnol Medical Products Inc. (supply contract with CIGNA Health Corp.)
July 1, 1996... Tecnol Medical Products Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, reached agreement with CIGNA Health Corp. on a contract that makes Technol the sole provider of orthopedic soft goods to 65 CIGNA facilities in Ohio, Georgia, Florida, Texas, New Mexico and...

Medline Industries Inc. (supply contract with Summit Medical Center, Oakland, CA)
July 1, 1996... Medline Industries, Inc., Mundelein, Ill., has formed a partnership with 225-bed Summit Medical Center, Oakland, Calif., that covers textile product and utilization costs under a capitated agreement. The three-year deal, which took effect May 19,...

Bracco Diagnostics Inc. (supply contract with AmeriNet Inc.)
July 1, 1996... Bracco Diagnostics Inc., Princeton, N.J., signed a five-year agreement with St. Louis-based AmeriNet for radiographic contrast media that is expected to generate as much as $500 million in purchases over its term. Bracco says the contract, which...

Ventritex pins '96 hopes on transvenous lead system and new ICD clearances.
July 1, 1996... Ventritex Inc. believes its newest FDA clearances will help it get back on track and rebound from a subpar sales year. In early May, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based device manufacturer received the go-ahead from the agency to begin marketing its TVL...

Cost savings could power demand for Vivatech's Tube Life Extension Program.
July 1, 1996... For years, analysts have been predicting the rise of the refurbished side of the capital equipment sector, in particular the diagnostic imaging sector, especially in view of an increasingly cost-conscious managed care environment. Now, a new...

DeVilbiss' new downsized oxygen concentrators built for transportability. (DeVilbiss Health Care Div.; SolAiris Series)
July 1, 1996... DeVilbiss Health Care Inc. hopes to fill a niche for oxygen concentrators designed for patients who enjoy active lifestyles with three- and five-liter units that make up the new SolAiris Series. Somerset, Pa.-based DeVilbiss received a 510(k)...

What's in the tea leaves for Asian medical device sales?(Industry Overview)
July 1, 1996... It was Napoleon who first dubbed China a "sleeping giant." While his military skill may arguably have been a bit uneven at times, his powers of prognostication, at least in this regard, were right on the money. Not only China, but all of Asia...

Price discrimination plagues a medical product Turkish bazaar. (medical products pricing)
July 1, 1996... The pervasive industry practice of price discrimination stands as the single most difficult impediment to improved efficiency within the medical product supply chain. This somewhat startling position was among the topics discussed in Chicago at...

DePuy acquires instrument supplier. (Dayton Wireburn)
July 1, 1996... Dayton Wireburn, Dayton, Ohio, a company that has supplied Warsaw, Ind.-based DePuy Inc. with orthopedic instruments for several years, was acquired by DePuy. The move is aimed at centralizing DePuy's development and manufacturing of instruments....

Premier-backed company offers on-line marketing service. (Premier Inc.; Medical Companies Alliance Inc.)
July 1, 1996... Next month, an upstart company that specializes in communications over the World Wide Web will launch what it calls the first comprehensive, searchable healthcare yellow pages. The MCA HealthPages (http://www.mcahealthpages.com) is produced by...

Greater New York hospital purchasing arm allies with Premier. (GNYHA Ventures)
July 1, 1996... Hospital materials managers in the New York City area and some in the vendor community were unhappy to hear the news last month that Premier Inc., the nation's booming supergroup, had brought the Greater New York Hospital Assn. purchasing arm -...

Industry continues to struggle as Baxter names its distribution company. (Baxter International Inc.; Allegiance Healthcare Corp.)
July 1, 1996... After flexing its corporate muscle to publicize the name change for its heralded spinoff, Baxter International now must find a way to parlay a beleaguered, low-margin medical-surgical supply distribution segment into a profitable, independent,...

PSS acquires two Midwestern firms. (Physician Sales and Service Inc.; Badger Medical Supply Co.; Crocker Fels Co.)
July 1, 1996... With two strokes of a pen and the surrender of an undisclosed amount of cash and stock, Physician Sales & Service Inc. (PSS) has reached its goal of being able to serve every ZIP code in the U.S. In rapid-fire fashion, the Jacksonville,...

Medtronic Inc. (expands Micro-Rel manufacturing facility)
July 1, 1996... Medtronic Inc., Minneapolis, announced that its Micro-Rel division base in Tempe, Ariz., would undergo its second major expansion and enhancement project in less than two years. The Micro-Rel division manufactures electronic circuits for...

LifeCell Corp. (distribution contract for AlloDerm products)
July 1, 1996... LifeCell Corp., The Woodlands, Texas, signed its first distribution agreement for AlloDerm[R] human tissue products for the plastic surgery market. The contract, with Dallas-based Sun Medical, is the first in LifeCell's strategy of setting up a...

Empi Inc. (marketing contracts)
July 1, 1996... Empi Inc., Minneapolis, with an eye toward becoming a one-stop shop for rehabilitation products, signed two new marketing agreements designed to expand product offerings of its Rehabilitation Division. The first of the contracts was signed with...

Luther Medical Products Inc. (acquires Pertrach Inc.)
July 1, 1996... Luther Medical Products Inc., Tustin, Calif., has purchased Pertrach Inc., a small manufacturer of tracheostomy products. Those products incorporate three patents previously owned by Pertrach. Luther Medical has manufactured the supplies for...

Cantel Industries Inc. (to acquire Surgicot Inc.)
July 1, 1996... Cantel Industries Inc., Clifton, N.J., will acquire Surgicot Inc., a privately held company based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., for 600,000 shares of Cantel stock and $4.5 million. The acquisition of Surgicot, a six-year-old manufacturer of...

Purchasing Managers: manufacturing sector loses steam in May. (Purchasing Managers' Index)
July 1, 1996... Economic activity in the nation's manufacturing sector slowed in May, following an April that registered only minimal growth, according to the most recent report from the National Assn. of Purchasing Management. The NAPM also reported that the...

St. Jude Medical, Inc. (executive appointment)
July 1, 1996... Patrick P. Fourteau was appointed president of Pacesetter, the global cardiac rhythm management business of this St. Paul, Minn.-based device manufacturer. Previously, Fourteau served as president of St. Jude Medical Europe, Middle East and...

Biomatrix Inc. (executive appointment)
July 1, 1996... Rory B. Riggs was appointed president of this Ridgefield, N.J.-based manufacturer of viscoelastic medical products. Riggs, who has been on the Biomatrix board of directors since October 1990, will be responsible for commercialization of the...

McKesson Corp. (appoints Mark A. Pulido as new company president)
July 1, 1996... Mark A. Pulido was named president, COO and a director of this San Francisco-based drug wholesaler. Most recently, Pulido served as CEO of Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Corp., East Hanover, N.J. Pulido, who spent 13 years with McKesson in drug...

Racal Health & Safety Inc. (appoints Randy Hoggle as company president)
July 1, 1996... Randy Hoggle was named president of this Frederick, Md.-based manufacturer of health and safety products. He has more than 15 years of industry experience, most recently with Indianapolis-based Boehringer Mannheim Corp.

Sunburst Surgical Products.
July 1, 1996... Ed Carter, former director of corporate accounts and distribution for United States Surgical Corp., Norwalk, Conn., has formed this distribution firm in Scottsdale, Ariz., specializing in products for surgery. Sunburst is the exclusive...

Bergen Brunswig Drug Co. (executive appointment)
July 1, 1996... David Neu was appointed executive vice president of marketing for this Orange, Calif.-based subsidiary of the Bergen Brunswig Corp. Before accepting his new post, Neu was Bergen's vice president of retail sales and systems. He has been in drug...