Hospital purchasing organization Premier Inc. announced a fifth contract this week with news that the Charlotte, N.C.-based GPO would begin providing creatinine hand-held analyzers to certain levels of its membership.
The devices, which are used to assess renal function at bedside, are developed by Nova Biomedical Corp. of Waltham, Mass.
Premier signed contracts with Deerfield, Ill.-based Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) and Instrumentation Laboratory of Bedford, Mass just yesterday. Earlier this week it signed contracts with both Covidien plc (NYSE:COV) and Medline Industries Inc. for incontinence products, and announced deals with six new companies last month.
Hospital GPOs have been vocal about signing contract recently, perhaps in response to Medtronic Inc.’s (NYSE:MDT) headline-making, Wall Street-pleasing decision to cut several contracts worth an estimated $2 billion a year for its cardiovascular and orthopedic products with Irving, Texas-based GPO Novation in February.
Other recent deals include St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) joining Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) to replace Medtronic as the CRM providers of choice for Upper Midwest Consolidated Services Center, Cardiovascular Systems Inc. (NSDQ:CSII) providing catheter-based artery de-clogging systems through HealthTrust Purchasing earlier this week, and St. Jude stepping into Medtronic’s vacated contract with Novation in April, to name a few.
Novation touted 11 new deals across general radiology and molecular imaging equipment this week, affirming the continued GPO presence in the market.
