We first spoke with Byron Hewett, the CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based BioBehavioral Diagnostics Co., late last summer, following a $2.5 million funding round that saw the company sell convertible debt securities to a trio of investors.
Diagnostics
Biospace Med wins FDA clearance for X-ray station
Biospace Med won regulatory clearance to use its full-body, low-radiation X-ray workstation for children with spinal problems.
The Paris, France-based company, which houses its U.S. headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., won 510(k) clearance from the Food & Drug Administration to use its sterEOS 2D/3D workstation in pediatric care.
The device, which consists of a scanner and a three-dimensional bone-modeling program, can capture head-to-toe images of patients in a standing, weight-bearing position, which can help orthopedic surgeons determine balance, posture and the position of each vertebra. The company says the workstation enables better assessments for surgical planning.
Interleukin raises $5 million
Interleukin Genetics Inc. (NYSE:ILI) drummed up about $5.3 million in commitments from institutional investors in a registered direct offering.
Update: Isis Biopolymer raises another $3 million
Isis Biopolymer Inc., a company developing a new generation of non-invasive drug delivery patches, has raised $3 million through an equity sale to existing investors.
The Providence, R.I.-based firm has developed the Isis Patch, a compact, wireless, active iontophoretic patch using a design that implements advances in microprocessors, thin film batteries, biopolymers and adhesives.
In a statement sent to MassDevice, CEO Emma Durand said the current round “clearly shows the confidence of the investment community in Isis Biopolymer and our innovative transdermal drug delivery and biosensor technology.”
Interleukin named in patent suit by Australian genetic testing firm
Interleukin Genetics Inc. (NYSE:ILI) and seven other firms were named in a patent infringement lawsuit filed by an Australian genetic testing company.
Genetic Technologies Ltd. of Victoria, Australia, asserts that Interleukin is one of eight companies violating a patent it holds for “Intron Sequence Analysis Method for Detection of Adjacent Locus Alleles as Haplotypes,” according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for Western Wisconsin.
Beckman Coulter Inc. (NYSE:BEC) was also named in the suit, which alleges that each of the companies developed products that infringe on one or more claims held in U.S. Patent No. 5,612,179, which Genetic Technologies was granted in May 1997.
Thermo Fisher may boost Millipore bid
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) may soon boost its initial $6 billion offer in order to reel in Millipore Corp. (NYSE:MIL).
Bloomberg News, citing a person close to the situation, said Waltham, Mass.-based Thermo Fisher was considering offering a higher price for Millipore. The source did not provide Bloomberg with a specific price, although the news service reported that any deal would include Thermo Fisher taking on Millipore’s $890 million in long-term debt.
Bruker’s Q4 profits grow 66 percent
Paced by 16.2 percent revenue growth during the fourth quarter, Bruker Corp. (NSDQ:BRKR) reported $43.6 million in profits during the three months ended Dec. 31, 2009.
The 66 percent jump in net income, compared with year-ago levels, on $366.4 million in revenues translated into 26 cents per share, beating even the most optimistic bottom-line forecasts by analysts. Company officials said they anticipate profit growth of at least 15 percent this year within Bruker’s primary scientific instruments operating unit, which would work out to net income of $93.4 million or more during 2010.
VirtualScopics’ sales jump 45 percent in 2009
VirtualScopics Inc. (NSDQ:VSCP) posted a 50 percent increase in total sales during the fourth quarter, capping off a strong 2009.
The company reported revenues of $2.9 million for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2009, up 50 percent compared with $1.9 million during the same period in 2008.
For the year, the Rochester, N.Y.-based quantitative imaging provider for clinical trials reported $10.4 million in sales, up 45 percent from the $7.1 million it reported in 2008.
Magellan Biosciences taps former Fenwal CTO Uchida as CEO
Magellan Biosciences Inc. tapped Hiroshi Uchida, the former technology chief for Fenwal Inc., to be its new president and CEO.
The Chelmsford, Mass.-based diagnostics firm said Uchida was instrumental in the carve-out of Fenwal from former parent Baxter International (NYSE:BAX) in 2007. The blood management company’s product launches and revenues grew on his watch and operating costs declined “significantly,” according to a press release.
Uchida’s resumé also includes stints at another diagnostics firm, Dade Behring Inc., management consulting company Arthur D. Little and Bain & Co., according to the presser.
Caliper sues Carestream over diagnostics imaging patents
Caliper Life Sciences Inc. (NSDQ:CALP) sued Carestream Health Inc., accusing the Rochester, N.Y.-based company of violating a suite of seven diagnostics imaging patents Caliper licenses from Stanford University.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas, alleges that Carestream’s In-Vivo Molecular Imaging Solutions and Image Station Molecular Imaging Solutions lines, including a series of Kodak-brand devices Carestream acquired from Eastman Kodak Co. in 2007, infringes the patents covering Caliper subsidiary Xenogen Corp.’s IVIS imaging system. The IVIS devices are used for preclinical non-invasive imaging of mammals covered by the Caliper patents.
Instrumentation Laboratory wins 510(k) clearance for thrombosis assay
Instrumentation Laboratory landed 510(k) clearance from the Food & Drug Administration for its HemosIL D-Dimer HS 500 assay, which the company says can effectively rule out the possibility of thrombosis in patients.
The Bedford, Mass.-based company also announced a deal with Health Canada to license the product north of the border; the assay has been available in Europe for about 10 months. Instrumentation Laboratory said the clearance from regulators marks the beginning of its commercialization of the assay in North America, with the help of its distribution partner Beckman Coulter Inc. (NYSE:BEC).