Health Industry Today articles from June 1995

Health Industry Today archives from June 1995

Thriving, trendy, competitive wound care market staying strong.
June 1, 1995... Wound care dressings, a market segment punctuated by solid revenue growth and accented heavily by technological advances, appears to be as vibrant as any in the medical-surgical supply industry. Make no mistake, competition in many areas of this...

For success in capitated supply pacts, learn from others' experience.
June 1, 1995... A capitated supply agreement is not a quick route. It's not a shortcut to new heights in market share, and it is not a new way to pull the wool over the eyes of an unsuspecting hospital customer. A capitated supply agreement is not round-trip...

Owens, Columbia/HCA act quickly to service new Denver venture. (Owens and Minor Inc.; Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp.)
June 1, 1995... An unusual partnership announced last month in Denver by Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., Nashville, Tenn., and Denver-based HealthONE set in motion some quick action on the part of Columbia/FICA's prime distribution vendor, Owens & Minor, Inc....

Medline needleless sample port called a first for urological systems. (Medline Industries Inc.)
June 1, 1995... Medline Industries, Inc., Mundelein, Ill., has introduced what it calls the first needleless sample port for urological care systems, a product designed to eliminate another source of needle sticks for medical personnel. Sales of the new product,...

New 3-D/4-D ultrasound imaging system to sell to cardiologists. (TomTec Imaging Systems Inc.)
June 1, 1995... TomTec Imaging Systems, Inc., Boulder, Colo., is approaching cardiologists in this country as it moves ahead with the marketing of EchoView, a 3-D/4-D analysis system for the reconstruction of ultrasound images that require specialized image...

River Medical aims at alternate site market with pre-filled infusion pump.
June 1, 1995... A new device dubbed the only pre-filled disposable I.V. pump available today will be marketed to nurses and pharmacists by its manufacturer, San Diego-based River Medical. SmartDose [TM] was cleared by the FDA May 8, and River Medical, a...

BioSafety Systems hoping new synthetic latex gloves will be good fit. (BioSafety Systems Inc.)
June 1, 1995... BioSafety Systems Inc., a small San Diego-based specialty product manufacturer, has kicked off sales of synthetic latex surgeons' and examination gloves. The gloves are made from Nitrile, a synthetic material the company is marketing as an...

Cabot-Circon could rule urology, gynecology LIS product sales. (Cabot Medical Corp.; Circon Corp.)
June 1, 1995... A merger between Cabot Medical Corp., Langhorne, Pa., and Circon Corp., Norwalk, Ohio, announced in late April is expected to create the largest publicly traded minimally invasive surgery company in the fields of urology and gynecology. The...

DLP's inexpensive, low-tech device limits surgical splash and splatter. (DLP Inc.)
June 1, 1995... An astonishingly uncomplicated method of minimizing exposure to blood-borne pathogens is driving sales of Contain-OR [TM], a device made by DLP, Inc., Grand Rapids, Mich. Contain-OR is designed to restrict splash and splatter at the source during...

Baxter points glove customers to Right Choice program. (Baxter Healthcare Corp.)
June 1, 1995... Refusing to sit on its laurels as the sales leader in surgeons' and examination gloves, Baxter Healthcare Corp., McGaw Park, Ill., is pushing ahead with its Right Choice glove management program, a strategy designed to assist customers with...

Sterile Concepts acquires Minnesota-based custom procedure tray producer. (Sterile Concepts Holdings Inc.; Associated Medical Products Company Inc.)
June 1, 1995... Seeking to expand national market share, bolster its sales force, upgrade its production facilities and increase market penetration in the Midwest, Sterile Concepts Holdings, Inc., Richmond, Va., has acquired Associated Medical Products Co.,...

DuPont to sell its medical units, but don't expect garage sale prices.
June 1, 1995... DuPont Co., says it is getting out of the medical supply business. The Wilmington, Del.-based corporation will sell its medical products business to finance a stock buyback program. Those businesses, said to be struggling with below-expected...

With FDA OK, Siemens resumes U.S. shipments of Swedish cath lab systems. (Siemens Medical Systems Inc.)
June 1, 1995... Siemens Medical Systems, Inc., Iselin, N.J., and its Imaging Systems Group received FDA clearance to resume shipping finished physiological recording systems to U.S. customers from an affiliate's facility in Solna, Sweden. The company says it has...

National accounts focus begins to pay dividends for Medical Graphics. (Medical Graphics Corp.)
June 1, 1995... A pair of potentially lucrative new group purchasing organization agreements signed recently marks the early success of Medical Graphics Corp.'s newly expanded and restructured sales and marketing organization, as the company begins to seek out...

Phoenix Medical Technology buoyed by new funding, new approvals. (Phoenix Medical Technology Inc.)
June 1, 1995... A recently obtained $3 million secured line of credit is expected to enable Phoenix Medical Technology, Inc., Andrews, S.C., to repay existing lenders and provide working capital to grow its presence in the expanding contamination and infection...

M.D. Buyline name change: now MDB Information Network. (M.D. Buyline Inc.)
June 1, 1995... "Comparison shopper" M.D. Buyline, a 12-year-old Dallas-based company that has made its mark working with materials managers who were negotiating acquisitions of big-ticket diagnostic or therapeutic equipment, is changing with the times and...

Baxter sales rise 11% in 1Q95. (Baxter International Inc.)
June 1, 1995... Baxter International, Deerfield, Ill., reported that net income during the first quarter of 1995 rose 11% to $145 million, compared with $131 million in the same quarter last year. The $110 million in operational cash flow also puts the company...

Baxter Healthcare Corp. (contract)
June 1, 1995... Baxter Healthcare Corp., McGaw Park, Ill., and Health Services Corp. of America (HSCA), Cape Girardeau, Mo., agreed on a seven-year sole-source contract for an estimated $150 million of Baxter I.V. products. The pact, which took effect May 1,...

Premium Plastics Inc. (contract)
June 1, 1995... Premium Plastics Inc., Chicago, signed a three-year contract with VHA Inc., Irving, Texas, that covers bed pans, carafes, pitchers, urinals, washbasins and emesis basins for the VHA PLUS [R] program. The agreement is expected to generate up to $9...

Pyxis Corp. (contract)
June 1, 1995... Pyxis Corp., San Diego, signed a contract with 16 U.S. Air Force base hospitals for installation of its Medstation [R] pharmacy management system. Agreement was reached through use of the Federal Supply Schedule. Earlier this year, Pyxis...

U.S. Surgical Corp. (contract)
June 1, 1995... U.S. Surgical Corp., Norwalk, Conn., signed a five-year sole-source agreement to supply suture products to the Kaiser Permanente Medical Program. The contract, which took effect May 1, covers all 16 hospitals in Kaiser's Northern California...

Wound care product contracts: closing the sale.
June 1, 1995... Beauty is only skin deep. But skin wounds, most of which are somewhat less than beautiful, need attention in hospitals and alternate site facilities who are buying every variety of advanced and traditional wound care products, many of which are...

Helping sales managers improve performance. (diagnostic equipment industry)
June 1, 1995... How do you measure a sales manager's performance in areas like clarifying goals, giving feedback and team building? For most organizations, the measurement is subjective. At the diagnostic division of Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill.,...

COHR Inc. (acquisitions)
June 1, 1995... COHR Inc., Los Angeles, recently acquired three medical equipment service companies. The largest is Northwest Biomedical Services, Inc., a company with offices in Seattle and Portland, Ore., that provides a broad range of clinical maintenance...

Cook, Inc. (receives technology and intellectual property rights)
June 1, 1995... Cook, Inc., Bloomington, Ind., received technology and intellectual property rights involving core expertise in biometallic chemistry for various diagnostic and therapeutic applications from Pharmacyclics, Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif. Cook will use...

The Health Care Technology Institute. (discontinuation of operations)
June 1, 1995... The Health Care Technology Institute, Alexandria, Va., announced it has discontinued operations as it completes the end of its three-year funding cycle. HIMA, the Health Industry Manufacturers Assn. is now distributing HCTI reports. Fax requests...

Staar Surgical Co. (FDA clearance)
June 1, 1995... Staar Surgical Co., Monrovia, Calif. received FDA clearance for its ultraviolet-absorbing material for use in intraocular lenses in the U.S. The material is designed to block ultraviolet rays from the sun as light filters through the eye. The...

SteriGenics International. (new facility)
June 1, 1995... SteriGenics International, Fremont, Calif., has purchased approximately 5.5 acres of land in Fort Worth, Texas, that will become the site of a new 80,000sf contract sterilization facility. The facility is expected to be operational by mid-1996....

Irving Levin Assoc., Inc. (acquisition/merger report)
June 1, 1995... Irving Levin Assoc., Inc., New Caanan, Conn. in its Health Care Merger & Merger Acquisition Report, says there were 115 publicly announced transactions among providers during the fourth quarter 1994. The hospital and laboratory/MRI/dialysis...

McKesson Corp. (new unit)
June 1, 1995... McKesson Corp., San Francisco, has created a new unit to serve hospitals, long-term care facilities, clinics and other providers. The unit, known as McKesson Health Systems, will provide pharmaceuticals, information technology services and custom...

IMED Corp. (strategic alliance with B. Braun Medical Inc.)
June 1, 1995... IMED Corp., San Diego, and B. Braun Medical Inc., Bethlehem, Pa., have formed a strategic alliance under which Braun will provide its Safsite[R] valves for needleless access to IMED's Gemini Infusion Management System. Systems such as Gemini...

Allied Healthcare Products Inc. (acquisition)
June 1, 1995... Allied Healthcare Products Inc., St. Louis, says it will acquire BiCore Monitoring Systems Inc., Irvine, Calif., in a straight cash transaction. BiCore, with annual net sales of about $3 million, develops, manufactures and markets specialized...

Luther Medical Products Inc. (patent sales)
June 1, 1995... Luther Medical Products Inc., Tustin, Calif., will use the proceeds of its $4.7 million sales of five patents to Johnson & Johnson Medical Inc., Arlington, Texas, to strengthen training and marketing programs and accelerate its product...

United States Surgical Corp. (agreement with American BioMed Inc.)
June 1, 1995... United States Surgical Corp., Norwalk, Conn., and American BioMed, Inc., The Woodlands, Texas, reached agreement in early May that gives U.S. Surgical a 90-day option to purchase the rights to American BioMed's vascular stents, atherectomy and...

Johnson & Johnson. (acquisition)
June 1, 1995... Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, N.J., says it will acquire Joint Medical Products Corp., Stamford, Conn., a developer and marketer of hip and knee prostheses, in a deal expected to close this summer for unannounced terms. Joint Medical's prime...

The Massachusetts Federation of Nursing Homes. (name change)
June 1, 1995... The Massachusetts Federation of Nursing Homes, Dedham, Mass., has changed its name to the Massachusetts Extended Care Federation, a change it says was brought on by the "movement of nursing facility providers into subacute care, assisted living...

Medical Device Technologies Inc. (name change)
June 1, 1995... Medical Device Technologies, Inc., San Diego, officially changed its name from CytoProbe Corp. in a move designed to more accurately describe its new direction in becoming an incubator for emerging medical technologies. The company currently has...

Boston Scientific Corp. (joint venture)
June 1, 1995... Boston Scientific Corp., Natick, Mass., signed an exclusive agreement with B&K Medical A/S of Denmark to jointly develop, market and sell catheter-based intraluminal ultrasound imaging systems for non-vascular applications. The alliance is...

MediVators Inc. (joint development agreement)
June 1, 1995... MediVators, Inc., Cannon Falls, Minn., completed a joint development agreement with another Minnesota company, Emergent Technology, Inc., to produce a newly developed chemical sterilant used in the sterilization of endoscopes and other surgical...

Medex Inc. (acquisition)
June 1, 1995... Medex, Inc., Hilliard, Ohio, has acquired a small Scottish medical drapes manufacturer, with an eye toward enhancing its European procedure pack business. The deal involves Ashfield Medical Systems Ltd., Cumbernauld, Scotland, a firm with annual...

Fending off threat from Baxter, Owens & Minor holds most VHA business. (Baxter Hospital Supply; Owens and Minor Inc.; VHA Inc.)
June 1, 1995... Owens & Minor has apparently shrugged off dire predictions concerning the retention of its linchpin business with VHA Inc., the Irving, Texas-based group that accounts for as much as half of all Owens annual revenue. Doubt from many quarters...

N.Y.'s Micro Bio-Medics acquires regional med-surg supplier. (Micro Bio-Medics Inc.; Mid-County Medical Supply)
June 1, 1995... Micro Bio-Medics Inc., Pelham Manor, N.Y., has acquired Mid-County Medical Supply, Pearl River, N.Y., a 20-year-old supplier of disposable medical products, diagnostic and office equipment to physicians, in a deal that amounts to a purchase of...

Long-term care operator tabs General Medical as prime med-surg supplier. (Hillhaven Corp.; General Medical Corp.)
June 1, 1995... Continuing to reel in long term and subacute care distribution contracts, General Medical Corp., Richmond, Va., signed an agreement with one of the nation's largest diversified health care providers, Tacoma, Wash.-based Hillhaven Corp. This...

April 1995 Purchasing Managers' report.
June 1, 1995... Growth in the nation's manufacturing sector leveled off in April, though for the 20th consecutive month that sector still showed some improvement, says the most recent report from the National Assn. of Purchasing Management. The overall economy...