CareFusion acquires German robotics company for $150 million | Acquisitions roundup

July 6, 2011 By MassDevice staff

CareFusion Corp. (NYSE:CFN) announced that it acquired Rowa, a Germany-based robotic medication storage company, for $150 million this week.

Rowa develops automated pharmaceutical storage and retrieval systems, which CareFusion will combine with its own Pyxis line of dispensing and security systems. Rowa’s products include refrigerated storage and a stock input and management system.

Rowa is headquartered in Kelberg, Germany, and has operations in Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. The company has more than 300 employees, and boasts more than 3,500 installations in 30 countries.

"Since forming Rowa in 1996, we have focused on building a brand that is innovative and reliable with superior customer service," said Markus Willems, co-founder and managing director of Rowa, in a release. "Today, Rowa is one of the leading pharmacy robotics companies in Europe, and we look forward to taking our growth to the next level with CareFusion."

The acquisition is expected to be neutral to adjusted earnings in the first year and increasingly accretive thereafter. The deal is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of FY12.

Here’s a roundup of companies announcing mergers, acquisitions and divestitures.

Olympus Corp. snags Spirus Medical
Olympus Corp. subsidiary Gyrus ACMI Inc. absorbed Spirus Medical Inc., effective July 1. All remaining Spirus’ Endo-Ease Discovery and Endo-Ease Vista Retrograde endoscope insertion assistance products will be distributed through the newly minted Spirus Medical LLC until inventory is exhausted, and no additional inventory will be added. Orders are only accepted from existing customers at this point.

"Olympus aims to develop new endoscopic systems by combining Spirus technology with its own endoscopic system technology," Spirus wrote in a letter to customers.
Read more

ResMed adds BiancaMed to its sleep apnea portfolio
San Diego-based sleep apnea device maker ResMed (NYSE:RMD) announced that it acquired BiancaMed Ltd. for an undisclosed amount. BiancaMed’s flagship technology is a motion sensor that can detect respiration and movement without physical contact with the human body. ResMed picked up all outstanding shares of BiancaMed stock this week.
Read more
Axis-Shield resists Alere’s advances
Alere Inc.’s (NYSE:ALR) unsolicited $369 million acquisition offer was dumped by Scotland-based Axis-Shield, a competing diabetes test product maker. Axis-Shield’s stock jumped as much as 50 percent on news of the rejection, Bloomberg reported.
Read more

Ga. warehouse workers sue Sterigenics, ConMed over EtO exposure
Fifty-three people who worked in an Atlanta-area warehouse that stored medical devices sterilized by ethylene oxide (EtO) filed suit this week against Sterigenics and its parent company over exposure to the gas. The plaintiffs or their families claim that long-term EtO exposure to the sterilized devices, which they unloaded, handled, warehoused and distributed, caused multiple… […]
FDA eases regs on certain device changes during pandemic
The FDA will allow limited changes to certain devices so medtech companies can address manufacturing and supply chain issues due to COVID-19-related disruptions. In a guidance released yesterday, the agency said it would allow changes to devices approved through its premarket approval (PMA) and humanitarian device exemption (HDE) pathways as long as those changes do… […]
15 heart devices that could boost their manufacturers’ sales
Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, medtech companies large and small were making notable news with a number of innovative heart devices. Some of these same companies took a big hit to their bottom lines when the danger of spreading COVID-19 and using up precious personal protective equipment convinced hospitals to limit non-urgent procedures. Now hospitals… […]
This wearable could help people practice safe distancing amid COVID-19
Imec spinoff Lopos, with the Ghent University (Belgium) announced the Lopos SafeDistance wearable for promoting safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. As businesses attempt to return to in-person activities, the collaboration designed the wearable device to warn employees through an audible or haptic alarm when they are violating social distancing guidelines as they approach each other.… […]
FDA launches COVID-19 research initiative
The FDA has entered an agreement with healthcare analytics company Aetion to research urgent questions about COVID-19. The New York City-based company said the research will support FDA objectives to explore the natural history of the disease, as well as treatment and diagnostic patterns using relevant, novel data sources and analyzing these data according to well-established principles.… […]
Medtronic execs see quick recovery, increased M&A
If Medtronic’s troubling Q4 report offers a snapshot of a company hit hard by COVID-19, the next image in the sequence may show a faster-than-expected recovery and increased merger-and-acquisition of smaller companies. In the quarterly call on Thursday morning, Medtronic CEO Geoff Martha and CFO Karen Parkhill expressed optimism that the company’s businesses already are showing signs… […]
Webinar: How COVID-19 is changing medical device regulation, clinical trials and reimbursement
Tuesday, June 23, 2020 11:30 a.m. eastern time / 8:30 a.m. pacific time As the life sciences industry works to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, it is clear that the dynamics of the medical device and digital health industries are being disrupted. Going virtual is the new normal and executives of medtech and healthtech… […]
IMDRF recommends UL 2900 compliance for medical device cybersecurity
By Stewart Eisenhart, Emergo Group Recent guidance published by the International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF) that covers medical device cybersecurity best practices includes recommendations that manufacturers comply with the UL 2900 set of standards for network-connectable devices. Get the full story here at the Emergo Group’s blog. The opinions expressed in this blog post… […]
Goddard teams with Swab56 on COVID-19 test swabs
Mechanical engineering and industrial design company Goddard announced that it is working with the Swab56 Project to rapidly increase the production of Swab56’s test swabs, which are used in healthcare facilities to test for COVID-19. As news reports have documented, traditional nasopharyngeal swabs are in short supply as healthcare facilities around the world struggle to keep… […]
This patient-mover got an emergency COVID-19 nod from the FDA
AR Tech, a division of A&R Tarpaulins, announced today that the FDA has granted an EUA for its Patient Isolation Transportation Unit (PITU) to help hospitals better manage the COVID-19 pandemic. “PITU is a game-changer in this fight against the pandemic because it is a negative pressure isolation enclosure that makes working with highly contagious diseases… […]
Sommetrics lands ISO 13485 certification
Sleep apnea treatment device startup Sommetrics announced yesterday that its quality management system has been certified to the ISO 13485:2016 standard. During the audit process required for certification, Sommetrics was also evaluated and found to be in compliance with the standards of the Medical Device Single Audit Program (MDSAP) for Canada. “This is an important… […]