Health Industry Today articles from June 1996

Health Industry Today archives from June 1996

Balloon catheter acceptance spurs rapid angioplasty market growth.
June 1, 1996... There are several reasons why today's market for angioplasty products is one of the most explosive in the medical device industry. The angioplasty product mix appears to have hit at the right time with the proper mix of products that have...

Medline-DVA case reveals a pressure cooker: today's medical product sales. (Medline Industries Inc.; Dept. of Veterans Affairs)
June 1, 1996... Hints of widespread abuse of a purchasing arm of the federal government, charges that medical sales representatives are routinely pressured into making false claims and promises to potential customers, and the pernicious impact of...

Maxxim jettisons Henley division. (Maxxim Medical Inc.; Henley HealthCare)
June 1, 1996... Maxxim Medical Inc., a manufacturer and supplier of medical products that has been growing by addition with a myriad of acquisitions since it was taken public in February 1990, did some subtraction recently when it completed the sale of its...

COHR acquires MRI ISO. (COHR Inc.; Vision Medical Services Inc.)
June 1, 1996... COHR Inc. has acquired an Ontario, Calif.-based independent services firm that specializes in MRI scanners made by all manufacturers. Vision Medical Services, Inc. is the third independent service organization brought in by Los Angeles-based...

LINC survey: more money on tap, but less medical equipment on shopping list.
June 1, 1996... There's a mixture of good news and bad news for manufacturers of big-ticket medical equipment. Hospitals are finding that their cash supplies are somewhat stronger than in the past and giving them more confidence in their financial outlook to...

Inflation report sees price hikes under 5%. (hospital supplies)
June 1, 1996... Inflation level projections for a variety of hospital supplies by a major group purchasing organization show that in general, hospital-level prices will rise by less than 5% over the next 12 months. A set of inflationary indices published by...

Smith & Nephew venture targets chronic foot ulcers.
June 1, 1996... A 50/50 joint venture between Memphis, Tenn.-based Smith & Nephew and California-based Advanced Tissue Sciences Inc. is expected to produce the world's first "off-the-shelf" bioengineered human tissue skin replacement product. The venture will...

Led by O.R. product sales, first quarter Isolyser sales skyrocket by 154%. (Isolyser Company Inc.; operating room products)
June 1, 1996... Powered by a jump in sales and orders for its OREX[R] line of degradable operating room products, Isolyser Co., Inc., Norcross, Gal, racked up a 154% increase in sales during the first quarter of the year. Net sales through that quarter, c...

New England group joins VHA. (Healthcare Services of New England; VHA Inc.)
June 1, 1996... VHA Inc. picked up an estimated $100 million in annual purchasing volume in late March when Healthcare Services of New England (HSNE), a shared services corporation that represents more than 500 facilities, including 200 acute care hospitals in...

Smith & Nephew readies supplies of EndoFix Absorbable Screw for ACL surgery. (Smith and Nephew Inc.; anterior cruciate ligament)
June 1, 1996... With a 510(k) clearance in the files since early March, Smith & Nephew Endoscopy, Inc., is now working to stockpile product in anticipation of a mid-June rollout of the [EndoFix.sup.TM] Absorbable Interference Screw. The Andover, Mass.-based...

Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur Inc. (contract)
June 1, 1996... Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur, Inc., Chaska, Minn., signed a three-year contract with St. Louis-based AmeriNet that will make the ACCESS[R] Immunoassay System, a fully automated analyzer. available to AmeriNet's 4,500 member organizations through...

AVL Scientific Corp. (contract)
June 1, 1996... AVL Scientific Corp., Roswell, Ga., was chosen as the sole-source provider of blood gas instrumentation for Kaiser Permanente's Southern California Region. The contract covers AVL's OMNI series instrument.

EMTEK Health Care Systems Inc. (contract)
June 1, 1996... EMTEK Health Care Systems Inc., Tempe, Ariz., signed an agreement with VHA Inc., Irving, Texas, to market EMTEK's Continuum 2000[TM] point-of-care clinical information system to VHA's 1,300 health care organizations.

IBM. (contract)
June 1, 1996... IBM, White Plains, N.Y., signed a contract to develop and manage collaborative computing services for VHA, Inc., Irving, Texas. Under the agreement, IBM will create a network infrastructure based on the IBM Global Network and develop software...

Varian Associates, Inc. (contract)
June 1, 1996... Varian Associates, Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., signed a three-year contract with the Toshiba Corp. of Japan under which it will supply Toshiba with X-ray tubes for CT scanning systems and other medical equipment. The agreement is said to carry a...

Boise Cascade Office Products Corp. (contract)
June 1, 1996... Boise Cascade Office Products Corp., Itasca, Ill., and BT Office Products International Inc., Buffalo Grove, Ill., picked up renewals of their agreements for office products with VHA Inc., Irving, Texas. The four-year contracts, which are...

LifeCell Corp. (contract)
June 1, 1996... LifeCell Corp., The Woodlands, Texas, was awarded a U.S. Navy contract valued at $613,000 for the further development and preclinical toxicity studies of ThromboSol[TM], LifeCell's proprietary platelet cold storage solution. The Navy contract...

AmeriSource Health Corp. (contract)
June 1, 1996... AmeriSource Health Corp., Malvern. Pa., reached agreement with University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) that makes it one of two alternate pharmaceutical wholesalers for its 70 members. Annual pharmaceutical purchases by UHC members exceed $750...

3M. (contract)
June 1, 1996... 3M, St. Paul, Minn., signed an agreement that places a 3M DryView 8700 Laser Imager[TM] for the first time in a Veterans Administration hospital, the 400-bed Dept. of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Oklahoma City, Okla. The institution plans...

Healthshare Associates. (contract)
June 1, 1996... Healthshare Associates, Weymouth, Mass., signed an agreement with MedEcon Services Inc., Louisville, Ky., that calls for Healthshare to contract with food and nutrition vendors for MedEcon's membership east of the Mississippi River. Healthshare...

Durr Medical. (contract)
June 1, 1996... Durr Medical, Montgomery, Ala., the distribution subsidiary of Bergen Brunswig Corp., Orange, Calif., was awarded the selection as a prime vendor medical-surgical supply distributor by Atlanta-based Shared Services Healthcare Inc. Both acute...

Tenet Healthcare Corp. (contract)
June 1, 1996... Tenet Healthcare Corp., Santa Monica, Calif., and Universal Health Services, King of Prussia, Pa., agreed to place Universal's owned and operated facilities into Tenet's BuyPower group buying program. The deal includes 30 hospitals and...

Candela hopeful that FDA clearance will lead to acceptance of prostate cryoablation. (Candela Corp.)
June 1, 1996... Candela Corp. is hoping that third-party reimbursements for cryogenic surgical procedures for the ablation of prostate tissue will become accepted, a change that will lead to strong sales for its newest product, a new urethral warming catheter...

Coherent's new four-in-one laser hits booming dermatological market. (Coherent Inc.)
June 1, 1996... Plastic surgeons and dermatologists interested in taking advantage of the fast-growing dermatological laser market can now acquire the VersaPulse[R] Aesthetic laser, a new four-in-one laser used for the removal of tattoos as well as the...

Dornier looks to cost-conscious market to sell new $1.1 million EMSE lithotripter. (Dornier Medical Systems Inc.; electromagnetic shockwave emission)
June 1, 1996... Dornier Medical Systems is seeking to meet cost-containment demands with the launch of its newest lithotripter, The Dornier Lithotripter, aka the DoLi, which earned FDA clearance in early January, but was rolled out only last month at the...

Kodak pitch for mammography screen-film system combines technical, financial sell. (Eastman Kodak Co. Health Imaging Div.)
June 1, 1996... Eastman Kodak Co.'s Health Imaging Division is combining a technical sell with a persuasive financial sell to market its new mammography screen-film system, known as the Kodak Min-R 2000. Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak rolled out the Min-R 2000 in...

Refusing to play it safe, Diebold enters automated vending machine market. (Diebold Inc.)
June 1, 1996... Diebold, Inc. is a 137-year-old security equipment company based in Canton, Ohio, that is a latecomer to an automated vending machine market in health care that some say is already mature. But undaunted by the presence of some entrenched...

Luxtec hopes headlights will light up the nation's operating rooms. (Luxtec Corp.)
June 1, 1996... Luxtec Corp. believes that the road to success goes directly through the operating room. And for the best view of that path, the Worcester, Mass.-based company is offering three new light source products: the UltraLite Headlight System, the...

Nycomed's new contrast agent Visipaque in a class by itself. (Nycomed Inc.)
June 1, 1996... Nycomed Inc. is touting its newest product--Visipaque[R] (lodixanol) Injection--as the first drug in a new class of contrast agents, and the Princeton, N.J.-based imaging and pharmaceutical product manufacturer is aiming it straight at the...

Du Pont diagnostics accord gives Dade clinical lab leadership spot.
June 1, 1996... A $525 million acquisition announced last December and finalized early last month makes Dade International Inc., Deerfield, III., the largest independent company devoted to serving the worldwide clinical laboratory market. In the deal, Dade...

Two years later, Owens still struggles with Stuart acquisition. (Owens and Minor Inc.; Stuart Medical)
June 1, 1996... Editor's Note: The following is the latest in a more or less regular Health Industry Today feature, HlT Then & Now, that takes you back for a review of some of the stories that made past headlines...and how those events turned out today. ...

Tips for negotiating the sale of a health care business.
June 1, 1996... Today's changing health care marketplace has made health care companies prime targets for mergers and acquisitions. As the industry grows, providers are looking to purchase other successful companies that have gained market share. Buying an...

Columbia/HCA builds private brand program for August roll-out. (Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp.)
June 1, 1996... Don't be surprised if you walk into your local hospital this summer--if that facility is owned by Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp.--and find paper cups, syringes, blood gas kits and other items that carry the Columbia/HCA brand name. That's...

Quartet of acquisitions brightens Schein's outlook; company income soars. (Henry Schein Inc.)
June 1, 1996... Henry Schein, Inc. will acquire Scientific Supply Co., a medical-surgical supply distributor based in Schiller Park, 111., that primarily serves the office-based physicians and medical laboratories segment. It was the second recently announced...

3M. (divestment)
June 1, 1996... 3M. St. Paul. Minn., will sell its worldwide infusion theraphy business to Graseby plc, a London-based electronic instruments group, under terms of a proposed agreement. The infusion therapy business had 1995 sales of approximately $37 million....

COHR Inc. (acquisitions)
June 1, 1996... COHR Inc., Los Angeles, has acquired two independent medical equipment service providers and added the two to its COHR MasterPlan equipment services program. The two are DAL Services Inc., Towaco, N.J., a biomedical engineering firm, and Gold...

The Health Industry Group Purchasing Assn. (new trading partner members)
June 1, 1996... The Health Industry Group Purchasing Assn. (HIGPA) added three new trading partner members this spring when Becton Dickinson Healthcare Systems, Franklin Lakes, N.J., Morris & Dickson Co., Ltd., The Woodlands, Texas, and Pilling Weck, Research...

Hewlett-Packard Co. Medical Products Group. (strategic alliance with Laerdal Medical Corp.)
June 1, 1996... Hewlett-Packard Co. Medical Products Group, Andover, Mass., and Laerdal Medical Corp., a Norwegian-based company with operations in Wappinger Falls, N.Y., will develop a strategic alliance designed to assist heart attack victims. Terms of the...

Nycomed Inc. (award)
June 1, 1996... Nycomed Inc., New York, and Cincinnati-based Standard Textile were honored by VHA Inc. for their support of the VHA network and its programs and services. The Irving, Texas-based alliance recognized Nycomed, whose annual sales of Omniscan and...

Cantel Industries, Inc. (distribution agreement)
June 1, 1996... Cantel Industries, Inc., Clifton, N.J., signed an agreement with Olympus America Inc.-Endoscope Division, that gives Olympus America exclusive distribution rights for the MediVators endoscope disinfection equipment and supplies in the U.S.,...

Safeskin Corp. (new headquarters)
June 1, 1996... Safeskin Corp. has moved its corporate headquarters to a newly renovated site in San Diego from its previous location in Boca Raton, Fla. The nine-year-old manufacturer of hypoallergenic, disposable latex gloves previously split its...

I-Flow Corp. (acquisition)
June 1, 1996... I-Flow Corp., Irvine, Calif., will acquire San Diego-based Block Medical Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Hillenbrand Industries, Inc., Batesville, Ind., for approximately $15 million in cash, $2 million of 1-Flow stock and other...

Chad Therapeutics, Inc. (contract)
June 1, 1996... Chad Therapeutics, Inc., Chatsworth, Calif., signed an exclusive development contract with the Life Support Division of Litton Systems, Inc. Under terms of the agreement, Chad will pay Litton up to $400,000 in development fees over the next ten...

Vinyl Plastics Inc. (acquisition)
June 1, 1996... Vinyl Plastics Inc., Sheboygan, Wis., has purchased Complex Medical Products, Inc. (CMP), Exeter, N.H., a company that manufactures extruded medical tubing products and medical device assemblies. All CMP production will be relocated to...

AmeriNet. (executive appointment)
June 1, 1996... AmeriNet: Mark Wilson was named vice president of the ValuPharm division of this St. Louis-based group purchasing organization. Most recently, he served as senior director of the pharmacy program for Premier Health Alliance, Westchester, 111....

Diametrics Medical, Inc. (executive appointment)
June 1, 1996... Diametrics Medical, Inc.: David T. Giddings was appointed chairman and CEO of this St. Paul, Minn.-based manufacturer of blood analysis equipment. He succeeds interim chairman Mark B. Knudson, who will remain on the board of directors. Giddings...

Vivatech, Inc. (executive appointment)
June 1, 1996... Vivatech, Inc.: Arthur Dornan, founder and former president and CEO of Digital Imaging Co. of America Inc., was named president and CEO of this Teaneck, N.J.-based developer of a process that extends the life of X-ray tubes used in CT and other...