Health Industry Today articles from March 1996

Health Industry Today archives from March 1996

High prices continue to haunt needleless system sales.
March 1, 1996... Despite their proven effectiveness in stopping the spread of bloodborne pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis B virus, needleless systems have yet to catch on in a big way in U.S. hospitals. The three reasons: cost, cost and cost. The...

GPO contract compliance remains the key to sales success. (group purchasing organizations)
March 1, 1996... A lot has changed during the '90s on all sides of the health care industry. Managed care has injected a newfound cost-pressure influence on providers and suppliers alike. Manufacturers and distributors have merged with one another to form...

Kendall vs. Southern Medical trial goes to court this month. (Kendall Co.; Southern Medical Supplies Inc.; March 1996)
March 1, 1996... The case of the small Southern medical-surgical supply distributor versus the big New England medical product manufacturer is scheduled to go to trial this month in U.S. District Court in New Orleans. Beginning March 18, lawyers from The...

Owens red ink still evident while Baxter income rose 2% in 1995. (Owens and Mimor Inc.; Baxter International Inc.)
March 1, 1996... For the fourth quarter at least, Owens & Minor's answers to declining profits failed to stem the tide of red ink that the big Richmond, Va.-based medical-surgical distributor has faced. Including one-time charges, Owens suffered a $9 million...

Orthopedics manufacturers vulnerable as raw material supplies exits market.
March 1, 1996... The withdrawal from the market of one of just two manufacturers of a commonly used raw material component used in the production of joint replacement devices is not expected to have an immediate effect on either supply or price. However,...

The great Sensor Pad caper.
March 1, 1996... Ten years after the original submission for 510(k) approval, the FDA finally granted conditional clearance for Inventive Products, Inc. to sell its Sensor Pad[R]. The marketing notification came Dec. 22 and amounted to a late Christmas present...

Baxter, CIBA deals in Indonesia underscore attraction to Far East market. (Baxter World Trade Corp.; CIBA Vision)
March 1, 1996... In a deal that heralds heightened interest in the region, Baxter World Trade Corp., Deerfield, III., formed a joint venture with P.T. Kalbe Farma, the largest pharmaceutical operation in Indonesia. Kalbe, which is located in western Java near...

Smith & Nephew Orthopaedics signs Columbia/HCA contract.
March 1, 1996... Memphis, Tenn.-based Smith & Nephew Orthopaedics, a division of Smith & Nephew Richards, Inc., has signed a three-year "preferred agreement" with Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., Nashville, Tenn., that carries with it $3 million in potential...

More suppliers asked to provide outsourcing deals. (medical suppliers)
March 1, 1996... Supplier-based outsourcing programs are not new, having been called other things: stockless distribution, custom kit assembly programs and sterilization services are a few examples. Knowing what a hospital or integrated system is looking for in...

Baxter Healthcare Corp.(Contract News)
March 1, 1996... Baxter Healthcare Corp., McGaw Park, III., signed a three-year surgical gloves agreement with VHA Inc., Irving, Texas, valued at $15 million that is said to be the largest national sole-source glove contract in the U.S. health care industry....

Protocol Systems, Inc.(Contract News)
March 1, 1996... Protocol Systems, Inc., Beaverton, Ore., and Medical Data Electronics (MDE), Inc., Arleta, Calif., each signed three-year contracts with the ValuQuip Division of St. Louis-based AmeriNet to provide members with portable vital signs monitors....

3M.(Contract News)
March 1, 1996... 3M, St. Paul, Minn., bundles two agreements involving its Medical-Surgical Markets Division into a single purchasing contract with VHA Inc., Irving, Texas. The agreement, valued as high as $90 million annually, covers wound care products,...

Ciba Corning Diagnostics Corp.(Contract News)
March 1, 1996... Ciba Corning Diagnostics Corp., Norwood, Mass., signed a three-year purchasing agreement with the Laboratory Corp. of America (LabCorp) under which LabCorp will purchase Ciba Corning diagnostic products and capital equipment. The contract also...

AmeriNet, Inc. (acquisition)(Contract News)
March 1, 1996... AmeriNet, Inc., St. Louis, has acquired 100% of the stock of Kowalski-Dickow Assoc., Inc., a 17-year-old Milwaukee based materials management consulting firm. Kowalski-Dickow has a client base in hospitals and multi-hospital systems, in...

St. Jude Medical Inc.(Contract News)
March 1, 1996... St. Jude Medical, Inc., St. Paul, Minn., will utilize manufacturing and distribution management software developed by QAD, Carpinteria, Calif., under a $3 million agreement just signed. The deal involves QAD's MFG/PRO system, which St. Jude...

Smith & Nephew Endoscopy.(Contract News)
March 1, 1996... Smith & Nephew Endoscopy, Andover, Mass., and VHA Inc., Irving, Texas, agreed on an extension of its existing purchasing contract that includes the Acufex line of products that Smith & Nephew acquired when it bought Acufex in mid-1995. Smith &...

Medical Graphics Corp.(Contract News)
March 1, 1996... Medical Graphics Corp., St. Paul, Minn., signed a two-year, sole-source contract for its cardiorespiratory diagnostic equipment by Atlanta-based Shared Services Healthcare, Inc. The award makes Medical Graphics exclusive supplier of the...

Abbott Laboratories, Inc.(Contract News)
March 1, 1996... Abbott Laboratories, Inc., Abbott Park, III., and Choice Medical Inc., Louisville, Ky., signed dual-source agreements with VHA Inc., Irving, Texas, making them suppliers of software to support the exchange of electronic information related to...

Candela Corp. focuses on tattoos, leg veins for new laser sales.
March 1, 1996... Fresh from renaming the company after 25 years of operation, Candela Corp., Wayland, Mass., has hit the market with two new laser systems for the treatment of extensive dermatological conditions. Candela, which in January changed its name from...

Toshiba's mid-range Eccocee scanner positioned as an alternative to upgrade. (Toshiba American Medical Systems Inc.)
March 1, 1996... Even though radiologists no longer make up the stronghold of diagnostic imaging equipment purchasing decision-makers that they did only a few short years ago, Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. is targeting that group among others for sales...

Marquette targets CardioServ at both hospital and pre-hospital markets. (Marquette Electronics Inc.)
March 1, 1996... In November, Marquette Electronics, Inc. received FDA clearance to sell CardioServ, the first in a line of new products derived from the European technology center formerly operated by E for M Corp., Torrance, Calif., before that company was...

Storz's MicroFlow needle said to alter cataract surgery. (Storz Ophthalmics Inc.)
March 1, 1996... A new phacoemulsification needle for micro-incision ophthalmic surgery that requires no equipment conversions, allows physicians to preserve their personal surgical techniques and is said to provide per-procedure cost benefits received FDA...

Good things come in threes: what do GPOs want anyway? (group purchasing organizations)
March 1, 1996... Group purchasing executives at the NCI conference were asked to reveal the three most important success factors for vendors. Here's a sample: * AmeriNet (Alan Kuebler): flexibility, information systems ("to help us become more efficient")...

Cardinal gets Pyxis, Pyxis gets $920 million; med-surg distributors may get a new competitor. (Cardinal Health Inc.; Pyxis Corp.)
March 1, 1996... By most accounts, last month's stunning merger between drug wholesaler Cardinal Health, Inc., Dublin, Ohio, and San Diego-based Pyxis Corp. makes sense for the two companies and for their customers. But its repercussions could have a much...

Daig buy raises St. Jude's stock in electrophysiology market. (St. Jude Medical Inc.; Daig Corp.)
March 1, 1996... Opinions were mixed about the latest acquisition in the high-tech cardiology product segment. On Jan. 31, St. Jude Medical Inc., St. Paul, Minn., announced plans to acquire Daig Corp. of nearby Minnetonka, Minn., in a deal that surprised...

U.S. Surgical, Owens, Stuart, capitated deals made '94 headlines. (United States Surgical Corp.; Owens and Minor Inc.; Stuart Medical Inc.)
March 1, 1996... Editor's Note: This month, Health Industry Today starts a new regular feature, HIT Then & Now, in which we take you back for a review of some of the stories that made past headlines--and how those deals turned out. Two Years Ago This...

Good advertising shouldn't be a piece of cake. (medical equipment industry)
March 1, 1996... In the October 1995 issue of Clinical Lab Products, there is an ad introducing Hematronix, Inc.'s EZ-Range[TM] product. The headline reads: "Compared to our competition, EZ-RANCE is a piece of cake..." Floating beneath this headline is a...

AORN vendors cut back historically extravagant spending. (Association of Operating Room Nurses)
March 1, 1996... As the manufacturers merge and costs are cut, a trade group that has been described as the last bastion of lavish spending by big vendors finds itself at a crossroads. Those attending this month's annual meeting of the Assn. of Operating Room...

Steris Corp. (acquisition)
March 1, 1996... Steris Corp., Mentor, Ohio, has acquired Ecomed, Inc., an Indianapolis, Ind.-based company it had been working with under a business development agreement. That pact involved the production of EcoCycle 10[TM], a biohazardous waste destruction...

E-Z-EM, Inc. (new product)
March 1, 1996... E-Z-EM, Inc., Westbury, N.Y., says its AngioDynamics division kicked off its initial offshore sales of [CO.sub.2]ject[TM], a new system for angiographic procedures that uses carbon dioxide contrast agents instead of the more costly iodinated...

IVAC Corp. (relocation)
March 1, 1996... IVAC Corp., San Diego, will relocate its corporate headquarters, including research and development, and its manufacturing facility in the Miramar and Sorrento Valley areas of San Diego. In November, the company sold its 38.5-acre headquarters...

Implemed, Inc. (investment)
March 1, 1996... Implemed, Inc., a Massachusetts-based developer of the Oligon[TM] anti-infective technology and a device manufacturer, was the recipient of a $2.5 million investment by the AmHS/Premier/SunHealth Medical Partner Fund. Oligon materials can be...

Wallace Computer Services, Inc. (acquisition)
March 1, 1996... Wallace Computer Services, Inc., Hillside, Ill., will acquire Forms Engineering Corp., La Palma, Calif., and will make the prime component of Wallace's West Coast direct mail capability.

Isomedix Inc. (new sterilization facility)
March 1, 1996... Isomedix Inc., Whippany, N.J., expanded its sterilization operations into the West Coast by purchasing an EtO sterilization facility from Medical Design Concepts, Inc., Temecula, Calif. The acquisition enlarges Isomedix' network of such...

Mallinckrodt Group, Inc. (acquisition)
March 1, 1996... Mallinckrodt Group, Inc., St. Louis, spent approximately $75 million to acquire Cincinnati-based Liebel-Flarsheim Co., a developer and manufacturer of contrast media power injection systems for diagnostic imaging procedures. Since 1992, the two...

Disarray in med-surg distribution raises questions about VHA's ADA program. (VHA Inc.; authorized distribution agent program)
March 1, 1996... What is the future of VHA's ADA program? One man who should know--Bill Elliott, senior vice president of supply chain management for the Irving, Texas-based group--concedes that "distribution as a whole is a mess," and says his organization is...

Utah's MedStop signs prime vendor accord with long-term care provider. (MedStop Inc.)
March 1, 1996... MedStop, Inc., a newly formed medical supply distributor based in Murray, Utah, signed an exclusive distributor agreement with Quality Health Care, Inc., a Murray-based operator of four skilled nursing facilities. MedStop was formed last...

Future Medical forges distribution deals to reach physician's office labs. (Future Medical Technologies International Inc.)
March 1, 1996... In a move calculated to penetrate the physician's office laboratory market, Future Medical Technologies, Wayne, Pa., has signed product distribution agreements with three major full-line medical-surgical distributors. General Medical Corp.,...

Purchasing managers: slowdown continues in January as economy weakens. (economic indicators)
March 1, 1996... For the sixth consecutive month, economic activity in the nation's manufacturing sector registered a slowdown, according to the most recent report from the National Assn. Of Purchasing Management that covers activity in January. Moreover, the...

Becton Dickinson. (executive appointment)
March 1, 1996... Becton Dickinson: David C. Pulsifer was named president of the newly formed Becton Dickinson Healthcare Systems organization for this Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based manufacturer. In addition, four area vice president of sales were also named. John...

Kendall Healthcare Products Co. (executive appointment)
March 1, 1996... Kendall Healthcare Products Co.: Kevin J. Gould was promoted to president of this Mansfield, Mass.-based manufacturer of disposable hospital products. Gould joined the company in 1991 as vice president and general manager of the Vascular...

McKesson Corp. (executive appointment)
March 1, 1996... McKesson Corp.: John H. Hammergren, former president of the medical-surgical division of Kendall Healthcare Products Co., Mansfield, Mass., was named president of San Francisco-based McKesson Health Systems. Hammergren earlier spent eight years...

Medical Sterilization, Inc. (executive appointment)
March 1, 1996... Medical Sterilization, Inc.: D. Michael Deignan was appointed CEO of this Syosset, N.Y.-based reprocessor and sterilization service provider. Deignan, who joined MSI last September as president and COO, succeeds former CEO Kenneth Morganstern,...