Health Industry Today articles from October 1995

Health Industry Today archives from October 1995

Capitated supply agreements edge closer to reality. (healthcare products sector)
October 1, 1995... Steadily and with little fanfare, the entire health care product delivery chain - from manufacturers to distributors to providers - seems to be inching closer to a realization that capitated supply agreements are the coming wave. Though there is...

VHA the latest to roll out committed med-surg buying program. (VHA Inc.)
October 1, 1995... For years, manufacturers have been seeking compliance with their group purchasing organization contracts. But for just as many years, they have mostly been left with little more than a "hunting license" in search of hospital agreements. That...

Device manufacturers cheer HCFA ruling. (Health Care Financing Administration's ruling on Medicare payments for evolutionary medical devices)
October 1, 1995... Medical device manufacturers gained what could ultimately prove to be a huge regulatory victory last month when the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) ruled that beginning Nov. 1, Medicare will restart payments for "evolutionary medical...

General Medical gains $100 million sole distribution award from Tenet. (Tenet Medical Corp.)
October 1, 1995... General Medical Corp., Richmond, Va., will become the sole distributor of medical-surgical supplies for Tenet Healthcare Corp., Santa Monica, Calif., next month under terms of a three-year "partnership agreement" valued at $100 million annually....

Fuji, G.E. expect big sales spike via computed radiography sales alliance. (Fuji Medical Systems USA Inc.; General Electric Medical Systems)
October 1, 1995... Fuji Medical Systems U.S.A., Inc., Stamford., Conn., and General Electric Medical Systems (GEMS), Milwaukee, have formed an alliance that joins one of the largest sales forces in the medical imaging field with a strong player in computed...

State, local facilities could get federal pricing under VA proposal. (federal pricing for medical supplies; Department of Veterans Affairs)
October 1, 1995... A plan floated by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs that would extend the federal pricing for medical supplies to state and local entities was the subject of a recent meeting between VA officials and representatives of the Health Industry...

Bard execs found guilty, await November sentencing. (former C.R. Bard Inc. executives David Prigmore, John Cvinar and Lee Leichter)
October 1, 1995... After an eight-week jury trial, three former senior executives of C.R. Bard, Inc., Billerica, Mass., were convicted of conspiring to defraud the FDA in connection with the sale and distribution of heart catheters. The three officials are David...

Sherwood, Davis & Geck merged by parent company. (Sherwood Medical Co.; Davis+Geck Div.)
October 1, 1995... Two familiar players among device manufacturers merged into one last month when Davis & Geck, Wayne, N.J., and Sherwood Medical Co., St. Louis, were combined by the parent corporation American Home Products Corp. to form what will now be known as...

Sterile Concepts to distribute ORex Degradables lines for Isolyser. (Sterile Concepts Holdings Inc.; Isolyser Company Inc.)
October 1, 1995... Sterile Concepts Holdings, Inc. has been granted distribution rights to the ORex[R] Degradables line of hot water soluble disposable medical products that will allow the Richmond, Va.-based custom pack maker to include those items in its line of...

Court dismisses Ethicon Endo's patent suit against U.S. Surgical. (Ethicon-Endo Surgery; United States Surgical Corp.)
October 1, 1995... United States Surgical Corp., Norwalk, Conn., apparently staved off what some observers and stock analysts believed were serious financial and market share losses last month when a United States District court in Ohio dismissed a patent suit...

Boehringer, DuPont Pharma merge drug therapy and monitoring efforts. (Boehringer Mannheim Corp.; DuPont Pharmaceutical Co.)
October 1, 1995... Boehringer Mannheim Corp., Indianapolis, Ind., expanded its point-of-care line when it acquired the Coumatrak[TM] monitoring system from the DuPont Pharmaceutical Co., Wilmington, Del. The Coumatrak system is designed to test a patient's blood...

With eye on U.S., in-home, saliva-based HIV test ready for offshore markets. (Beacon Diagnostics Inc.'s OraScreen HIV Rapid Test)
October 1, 1995... Beacon Diagnostics, Inc., is hoping that offshore acceptance of its saliva-based HIV test will provide a conduit to sales in this country. The California-based company already has approximately $20 million in distributor agreements in its...

Nellcor, Puritan-Bennett merger will cost sales jobs.
October 1, 1995... The merger of Nellcor Inc., Pleasanton, Calif., and Puritan-Bennett Corp., Overland Park, Kan., that was finalized in late August will result in the elimination of approximately 300 positions, including an undetermined number of corporate...

Amid aborted merger speculation, Amsco launches refurb program. (AMSCO International Inc.)
October 1, 1995... With rumors of imminent merger activity whirling, Pittsburgh-based Amsco International, Inc., has launched its first remanufactured product program, a development that is strong evidence that customers are looking for even more stringent...

Urohealth, in acquisition binge, could more than double sales. (Urohealth Systems Inc.)
October 1, 1995... Urohealth Systems, Inc., formerly Davstar, Costa Mesa, Calif., anticipates a doubling of its revenue following its acquisition of Osbon Medical Systems Ltd., in a stock transaction valued at approximately $47 million. Augusta, Ga.-based Osbon is...

Hospitals and rehab providers lead first-quarter mergers and acquisitions. (1995)
October 1, 1995... The merger and acquisition parade churned on in the first quarter of 1995, and at a pace that shattered records in the size of deals announced. Five health care sectors - HMOs, home health care, laboratory, long-term care and rehabilitation - all...

Cardiac Control Systems renews Intermedics supply pact.
October 1, 1995... Cardiac Control Systems, Inc., Palm Coast, Fla., extended its supply agreement with Intermedics Inc., Angleton, Texas, in which Cardiac Control Systems manufactures and supplies leads for Intermedics' single lead VDD pacemaker. The two-year...

Baxter's BioStat 1000 could displace prevailing sampling techniques. (Baxter Healthcare Corp.'s on-line blood monitor)
October 1, 1995... Baxter Healthcare Corp. is hoping that it can reach clinicians accustomed to an industry standard of blood sampling with a new on-line monitor that measures dialysis adequacy. Deerfield, Ill.-based Baxter received FDA clearance for the new...

Everything's cool as Augustine warms up sales effort for PolarAir System. (Augustine Medical Inc.'s patient cooling system)
October 1, 1995... Augustine Medical, Inc. will try to convince hospitals that it didn't really mean it after all when they said that patient cooling was bad and patient warming was good. That's because Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Augustine has just launched a new...

Boston Scientific pays $500 million for Heart Technology Inc.
October 1, 1995... In the latest example of a vendor making an acquisition aimed at meeting customer demands for one-stop shopping, Boston Scientific Corp., a company already hot on the acquisition trail, said it will buy Heart Technology Inc., Redmond, Wash., for...

Wyntek Diagnostics has a totally OSOM new product. (urine test)
October 1, 1995... At the outset, Wyntek Diagnostics Inc. will target the nation's primary care physicians for sales of its new product, the OSOM[TM] hCG-Urine Test. The FDA took only 43 days to grant clearance for the San Diego-based company to market the test,...

J&J to shift marketing focus for new line of vital signs monitors. (Johnson and Johnson Medical Inc.)
October 1, 1995... To sell its latest line of portable vital signs monitors, Johnson & Johnson Medical Inc. trained its 1995 marketing efforts in a melange of medical-surgical areas. But in 1996, a different tactic will surface when the big company refocuses on...

Purchase Connection GPO prepares to go public. (group purchasing organization)
October 1, 1995... Expect the parent company of a large group purchasing organization to go public before the end of the year. The first public offering of stock in COHR, Inc., parent of Los Angeles-based Purchase Connection, for years a familiar buying group name,...

Medline Industries, Inc. (contract with Highland Park Hospital)
October 1, 1995... Medline Industries, Inc., Mundelein, Ill., will guarantee 300-bed Highland Park Hospital, Highland Park, Ill., $350,000 in product, distribution and utilization savings over the first 18 months of a five-year, $7.5 million agreement signed last...

Comdisco Medical Equipment Group. (contract with Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp.)
October 1, 1995... Comdisco Medical Equipment Group, Rosemont, Ill., was named a preferred vendor of reconditioned diagnostic imaging equipment by Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., Nashville, Tenn. In 1994, Comdisco's used medical equipment segment grew 68% to $22...

McKesson Health Systems. (distribution agreement with AmeriNet Inc.)
October 1, 1995... McKesson Health Systems, a unit of San Francisco-based McKesson Corp., signed two new three-year distribution agreements with St. Louis-based AmeriNet to provide pharmaceuticals to more than 200 facilities in the Washington, Oregon and Utah...

Bristol-Myers Squibb. (manufacturing agreement with VHA Inc.)
October 1, 1995... Bristol-Myers Squibb, New York, will manufacture its anti-tumor drug Mutamycin[R] (mitomycin-C) for the VHA PLUS[R] private label program operated by VHA Inc., Irving, Texas. Bristol-Myers Squibb already manufactures two other products included...

General Medical Corp. (contract with Graduate Health System)
October 1, 1995... General Medical Corp., Richmond, Va., signed what it is calling "a prime partnership agreement" with Graduate Health System, an integrated health care system based in Philadelphia. The contract is a five-year deal valued at approximately $45...

Sherwood Medical Co. (contract with University Hospital Consortium)
October 1, 1995... Sherwood Medical Co., St. Louis, signed a two-year renewal of an agreement with University Hospital Consortium, Oakbrook, Ill., for a range of Foley catheters, Foley catheter trays, urine meters, and incontinence items and accessories. UHC also...

Hudson RCI. (renews supply contract with VHA Inc.)
October 1, 1995... Hudson RCI, Temecula, Calif., renewed an agreement with VHA Inc., Irving, Texas, by signing a new purchasing contract for respiratory disposables. The four and one-half-year deal could give Hudson RCI nearly $13 million in annual sales while...

OMI, still on the ropes, boosts prices 1%. (Owens and Minor Inc.)
October 1, 1995... The year 1995 won't go down as a rousing success for Owens & Minor, Inc. The Richmond, Va.-based medical-surgical distributor is suffering through a worse-than-expected year, and the bad news got a bit worse during the third quarter, where...

Great medical advertising is a rare gift indeed.
October 1, 1995... Great advertising has that rare and robust blend of visual and verbal cues that resonate with both the intellectual and the emotional needs of its target audience. A great ad will reach into and grab hold of the heart, the gut and the mind of its...

Cardiologists: sales reps can be key players, if....
October 1, 1995... If you read enough news reports about the macro-level changes under way in the health care industry - new economic considerations, mergers and acquisitions, shifts in power and market share - it is easy to underestimate the significance of the...

CMS sale to Fisher raises questions about impartiality. (Curtin Matheson Scientific; Fisher Scientific International Inc.)
October 1, 1995... Though some sort of transaction had been rumored for months, competitors in the laboratory supply sector greeted last month's $311.9 million sale of Houston-based lab supply distributor Curtin Matheson Scientific to Pittsburgh-based Fisher...

3M Medical Imaging Systems. (supply contract with Siemens AG)
October 1, 1995... 3M Medical Imaging Systems, St. Paul, Minn., reached agreement with Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin and Muenchen, Germany, that qualifies 3M's DryView Laser Imaging Systems for connection to a selected choice of Siemens diagnostic medical...

United States Surgical Corp. (acquires exclusive rights to market Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s transgenic pig organs)
October 1, 1995... United States Surgical Corp., Norwalk, Conn., acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to market transgenic pig organs being developed by Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., New Haven, Conn. The deal gives USSC exclusive manufacturing, marketing, sales...

Elscint, Inc. (establishes nuclear medicine training center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center)
October 1, 1995... Elscint, Inc., Hackensack, N.J., has established a CEU-accredited nuclear medicine training center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn. Among other principles and applications covered in the curriculum, the center will train...

Biomagnetic Technologies Inc. (to sell Magnes II magnetic source imaging system in Japan)
October 1, 1995... Biomagnetic Technologies Inc., San Diego, will begin selling its Magnes[R] II magnetic source imaging system in Japan thanks to recent clearance from the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare. Biomagnetic Technologies already has six Magnes I...

Graphic Controls Corp. (to be acquired by Bessemer Holdings L.P.)
October 1, 1995... Graphic Controls Corp., Buffalo, N.Y., has agreed to be acquired by New York-based Bessemer Holdings L.P., a private investment firm, and certain members of Graphic Controls management, in a transaction that is expected to close some time this...

Mediq Inc. (sells assets to National Medical Care Inc.)
October 1, 1995... Mediq Inc., Pennsauken, N.J., sold all of the assets of Mediq Imaging Services, Inc., its nuclear imaging and ultrasound subsidiary, to National Medical Care, Inc., Rockleigh, N.J., a division of W.R. Grace, Inc., Boca Raton, Fla., for...

Diatech, Inc. (product development and marketing agreement with Hafslund Nycomed A/S)
October 1, 1995... Diatech, Inc., Londonderry, N.H., signed a multiple product development and marketing agreement with Hafslund Nycomed AS, Oslo, Norway, involving Diatech's peptide-based nuclear medicine imaging agents. The deal gives Hafslund Nycomed's...

BioSafety Systems Inc. (to merge with HVB Inc.)
October 1, 1995... BioSafety Systems Inc., San Diego, will merge with HVB Inc., an investment company led by Vincent W. Foglia, CEO of Sage Products Inc., a device manufacturer based in Crystal Lake, Ill.

International Medication Systems, Ltd. (launches inhaled anesthetic lines)
October 1, 1995... International Medication Systems, Ltd. (IMS), South El Monte, Calif., has launched two inhaled anesthetics, isoflurane and enflurane, additions to its product line in anesthesia and pain management.

E-Z-EM, Inc. (marketing agreement with Pharmacyclics Inc.)
October 1, 1995... E-Z-EM, Inc., Westbury, N.Y., signed an agreement that gave it exclusive rights to market Gadolite[R] Oral Suspension, a new oral contrast agent for MRI procedures developed by Pharmacyclics Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif. The agreement gives E-Z-EM...

Protocol Systems Inc. (acquires Omeara Ltd.)
October 1, 1995... Protocol Systems Inc., Beaverton, Ore., acquired Omeara Ltd., a developmental-stage defibrillator design and engineering firm with headquarters in Hillsborough, County Down, Northern Ireland, for $426,000 plus 145,000 shares of Protocol common...

Rochester Medical Corp. (marketing and distribution contract with ConvaTec)
October 1, 1995... Rochester Medical Corp., Stewartville, Minn., and ConvaTec, a Bristol-Myers Squibb company based in Princeton, N.J., agreed on a contract covering the marketing and distribution of Rochester Medical's line of urology and incontinence products....

Rollprint Packaging Products, Inc. (acquires UCB Medical Industries)
October 1, 1995... Rollprint Packaging Products, Inc., Addison, Ill., purchased UCB Medical Industries, Bloomfield, Conn., from UCB S.A., Brussels, Belgium, for an undisclosed sum. UCB Medical Industries is a supplier of plain and printed films and laminated...

Smith & Nephew Richards Inc. (discontinues cochlear implant production)
October 1, 1995... Smith & Nephew Richards Inc., Memphis, Tenn., will exit the cochlear implant business and transfer its cochlear implant product to Cochlear Corp., Englewood, Colo. Smith & Nephew Richards, which manufactures the Ineraid[R] cochlear implant, says...

Staar Surgical Co. (antitrust lawsuit against Allergan Medical Optics)
October 1, 1995... Staar Surgical Co., Monrovia, Calif., can move ahead with its $30 million lawsuit against Allergan Medical Optics, Santa Ana, Calif., which alleges violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of...

Varian Associates, Inc. (completes sale of Electron Devices business)
October 1, 1995... Varian Associates, Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., completed its previously announced sale of what was formerly its Electron Devices business to an investor group led by Los Angeles-based Leonard Green & Partners, L.P., for approximately $20 million in...

EdenTec Corp. (to acquire Melville Software Ltd.)
October 1, 1995... EdenTec Corp., Eden Prairie, Minn., the home health care subsidiary of Nellcor Inc., Pleasanton, Calif., will acquire Melville Software Ltd., Ottawa, Ont., Canada, a manufacturer of sleep diagnostic products used in the sleep lab. Melville...

Olicon Imaging Systems, Inc. (marketing agreement with Bell Atlantic Network Services Inc.)
October 1, 1995... Olicon Imaging Systems, Inc., San Clemente, Calif., signed a joint marketing agreement with Bell Atlantic Network Services, Inc., to jointly market management solutions to health care organizations. Bell Atlantic will integrate Picture Archiving...

Coherent, Inc. (total medical laser instrument shipments)
October 1, 1995... Coherent, Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., achieved the milestone of more than $1 billion in cumulative shipments of its medical laser instruments and accessories. Since the introduction of the first medical laser in 1970, Coherent has shipped more...

Orthofix International N.V. (completes acquisition of American Medical Electronics Inc.)
October 1, 1995... Orthofix International N.V., New York, completed its acquisition of American Medical Electronics, Inc., Richardson, Texas, and changed the name of the company to Orthofix Inc.

American BioMed, Inc. (distribution contract with Horizon Medical Products Inc.)
October 1, 1995... American BioMed, Inc., The Woodlands, Texas, named Atlanta-based Horizon Medical Products, Inc., a distributor of silicone vascular access products, to distribute its Cathlab in the U.S. Horizon agreed to purchase a minimum of $2.2 million of...

Abiomed, Inc. (laparoscopy instrument research grant from National Institutes of Health)
October 1, 1995... Abiomed, Inc., Danvers, Mass., picked up a $100,000 research grant from the National Institutes of Health to build and test an instrument capable of remotely placing and securing surgical sutures via laparoscopes.

Claflin, Metropolitan latest distributors to merge. (Claflin Co.; Metropolitan Supply Co.)
October 1, 1995... A merger between two New England medical-surgical distributors located only about 60 miles apart points up how a fast-changing industry is consolidating to meet the changing demands of its customers, as well as how older, respected companies must...

CIGNA, N.M. hospital in $100 million primary care supply pact with G.M. (CIGNA U.S.; Lovelace Medical Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico; General Medical Corp.)
October 1, 1995... Lovelace Medical Center, Albuquerque, N.M., is the lone hospital covered in a major $100 million medical-surgical supply agreement just signed between CIGNA U.S., Bloomfield, Conn., and General Medical Corp., Richmond, Va. The 177-bed institution...

Owens gains two prime vendor awards. (Owens and Minor Inc.)
October 1, 1995... Two prime vendor agreements with a combined value as high as $50 million are the latest victories for Owens & Minor, Inc. The Richmond, Va.-based distributor picked up agreements with the University of California, San Francisco campus (UCSF), and...

Purchasing managers: manufacturing activity slows in August.
October 1, 1995... Signs of growth in the manufacturing sector that gave hope to some in July quickly faded away in August, according to the most recent report from the National Assn. of Purchasing Management. At the same time, the overall economy continued to...