The Medical Device Business Journal — Medical Device News & Articles | MassDevice
Wall Street Beat | Earnings Reports | Funding Roundup | Mergers & Acquisitions | Initial Public Offerings | Legal News
It turns out that mother’s little helper can give big companies a boost too. Or at least temporarily dull the pain of a deep recession.
Covidien Ltd. rode a rising tide of sales of oxycodone hydrochloride extended-release tablets — a generic Oxycontin equivalent — to a strong second quarter.
But the boost will be short-lived, thanks to a settlement the Mansfield-based medical products giant inked last year with Stamford, Conn.-based Perdue Pharma LP.
BioSphere Medical Inc. posted first-quarter sales of $7.28 million, up 1 percent compared with $7.21 million during the same period last year.
But the Rockland embolotherapy products maker’s net loss grew 17 percent during the period ended March 31, to $1.6 million, compared with $1.4 million during the first quarter of 2008.
Gross profit rose to nearly 75 percent of sales, compared with 71.7 percent during the same period last year, but operating expenses also rose as research and development, marketing and legal costs increased.
Caliper Life Sciences Inc. posted first-quarter sales of $28.5 million, down 2.8 percent compared with $29.3 million during the same period last year.
The Hopkinton contract research organization said the comparison includes $2.9 million in revenues from divested product lines during the 2008 first quarter; absent those revenues, sales rose nearly 8 percent.
PerkinElmer Inc. added chairman to the list of titles preceding president and CEO Robert Friel’s name.
Friel takes the chair from Gregory Summe, who helmed the Waltham device gargantuan‘s board since 1999.
Waters Corp. swam against the stream during the first quarter, posting a 7.1 percent earnings increase despite a 10.4 percent dive in revenues.
The Milford-based lab equipment maker posted sales of $333.1 million, compared with $371.7 million during the same period last year; net income reached $73.4 million, compared with $68.5 million during the first quarter of 2008.
Waters chairman, president and CEO Douglas Berthiaume attributed the positive earnings to careful cost control and strong demand for recurring revenue product lines.
The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center doled out seven so-called “accelerator” loans totaling $3.4 million to local, early-stage life science firms and the medical device industry fared well, landing five of the ignition loans.
The loans, of up to $500,000, are designed to augment the existing $5.8 million in financing the young companies have already landed. Eighty-eight companies applied to the program.
Luis Barros, the center’s senior vice president of investment and industry development, told MassDevice the loans are especially important for early-stage firms that haven’t raised much capital.
Strong international sales helped Aspect Medical Systems Inc. boost revenues 4 percent and pushed the company into the black during the first quarter of 2009.
The Norwood-based brain-monitoring equipment maker posted revenues of $25.3 million for the three-month period ended March 31, compared to $24.4 million for the same period last year.
That pushed the company into the black. Aspect reported net income of $1.9 million, compared to a $235,000 loss during the first quarter of 2009.
If you thought the Massachusetts gifts ban was strict, the Institute of Medicine will go you one better.
The medical board of the National Academy of Sciences issued a set of recommendations that amount to the most stringent proposal yet on regulating industry gifts and payments to doctors.
LeMaitre Vascular shrugged off slower sales during the first three months of 2009 to narrow its net loss, but restructuring charges kept the company out of the black.
The Burlington-based company, which makes a wide array of products and implants for vascular disease, said sales fell slightly during the first quarter, reaching $11.4 million compared with $11.8 million during the same period last year — a 4 percent slip.
There were a couple of big questions buzzing around the MassDevice bullpen today.
When will the Centers for Disease Control reveal which rapid influenza test it will authorize to diagnose the ever-escalating number of swine flu cases?
And will the makers of that test be one of our own?
The Wall Street Journal reported late yesterday that federal regulators issued orders allowing the emergency use of anti-viral drugs and rapid tests, some of which are not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration, to combat the escalating swine flu outbreak.
Philips Respironics hit the big time — literally.
The Cambridge-based respiratory devices maker went behind the scenes for NBC’s mega-hit “The Biggest Loser: Couples” to provide equipment, testing, treatment and therapy for the weight-loss show’s contestants’ obstructive sleep apnea.
