

As expected, Covidien (NYSE:COV) closed its $300 million merger of Oridion Systems, an Israeli maker of pulse oximetry products.
In the deal, first announced in April, Covidien agreed to pay $23 per share for Oridion. Officials at the Mansfield, Mass.-based company said it plans to roll the company into its respiratory & monitoring solutions division, 1 of 5 operating units in the company’s medical device segment, which brought in over $2 billion in sales during the 3 months ended March 30.
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“The acquisition of Oridion will expand our portfolio with a key monitoring technology,” respiratory and monitoring president Robert White said in a prepared release. “Oridion’s products and technology will complement the company’s pulse oximeter and monitoring product lines, enabling us to offer a complete portfolio of solutions to monitor respiratory function for our customers.”
The deal completes quite a comeback for Oridion, which in January overcame some manufacturing hurdles that saw its entire product line blocked in the U.S.
The FDA banned Oridion from importing any devices into the U.S. after the med-tech maker failed to fix violations at a Jerusalem plant. Shares fell 39% on news of the ban, from $11.00 to $6.65 at market opening Dec. 27.
The federal watchdog agency lifted most of the ban earlier this year, narrowing the prohibition to just 2 Oridion products, specifically the infant/neonatal FilterLine H Set and infant/neonatal VitaLineTM H Set line.
The FDA action came after nearly 6 months of warnings from the agency. Oridion stepped into the FDA’s spotlight in June when an investigation was launched after Philips (NYSE:PHG) recalled 8 lots of infant and neonatal carbon dioxide sampling lines manufactured by Oridion on concerns that they may contain hair-like plastic strands that infants could inhale.
Oridion also markets the Microstream capnography monitors and modules and the etCO2 breathing sampling lines that monitor ventilation.