A New York hedge fund specializing in medical-device and biotech plays has sold off 4.4 percent of its overall stake in NxStage Medical Inc.
Renal
NxStage unit inks another supply deal
NxStage Medical Inc. subsidiary Medisystems Corp. inked a new, three-year supply deal with Reliant Renal Care Inc. to provide its blood tubing sets and safety needles to Reliant’s network of 12 dialysis centers.
The Lawrence, Mass.-based renal products maker said the deal will see Medisystems supply Streamline blood tubing sets and MasterGuard safety needles to Reliant centers in Alabama, Michigan, Texas and Colorado.
Spire to sell catheter business to Bard Access Systems for $15 million
Spire Corp., planning to get out of the medical device industry to focus on solar energy, agreed to sell its hemodialysis catheter business to Bard Access Systems Inc. for $15 million.
The Bedford, Mass.-based company said the deal, expected to close before the end of the month, will see substantially all of the assets of the seven-year-old catheter business go to Salt Lake City-based Bard, in return for $14.9 million in cash and $100,000 to two employees as compensation for non-compete contracts.
PLC Systems touts preliminary RenalGuard study results
PLC Systems Inc. is touting preliminary results from a clinical study of its RenalGuard anti-contrast-induced nephropathy treatment.
CIN is a form of acute renal failure caused by exposure to contrast media agents during image-guided cardiology and radiology procedures. The Franklin, Mass.-based company said data on 43 patients at high risk for kidney failure indicate that none of the patients treated with RenalGuard acquired the malady.
PLC Medical halves Q2 net loss, inks foreign distribution deal.
PLC Systems Inc. managed to halve its net loss despite a 6.9 percent revenues slide during the second quarter and inked a distribution deal for its flagship product in South Asia.
The Franklin, Mass.-based device maker, which manufactures the RenalGuard system, posted a net loss of $307,000 on sales of $1.2 million for the three months ended June 30, compared with a net loss of $671,000 on sales of $1.3 million during the same period last year — a more than 54 percent reduction of red ink.
Flat really is the new up at NxStage, at least during the second quarter
NxStage Medical Inc. said strong sales in its home dialysis business helped the company post a 15 percent increase in revenues during the second quarter.
But the sales bump did little to change the company’s bottom line, as net losses remained unchanged from the same period last year.
PLC Medical Systems wins Canadian patent nod
Canadian officials have approved a patent application by PLC Systems Inc., the Franklin, Mass.-based company developing the RenalGuard therapy system to prevent contrast-induced nephropathy.
The decision by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office marks the first patent approval for RenalGuard in any country, according to the company.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration gave PLC permission to significantly expand testing of the RenalGuard device in November 2008, adding an extra 160 patients to the 246 subjects participating in a clinical trial. Randomized controlled trials are now underway at about 30 U.S. sites.
NxStage subsidiary re-ups needle contract
Officials at NxStage Medical Inc. announced that the company’s Medisystems subsidiary has inked a three-year extension with Fenwal Inc.
Terms of the deal were not announced, but Medisystems will continue to provide Fenwal with its MasterGuard needle sets and FingerShield safety technology, which protects against needle stick injuries.
Fenwal, headquartered in Lake Zurich, Ill., is a multi-national company that supplies products to blood and plasma collection centers around the world.
NxStage inks supply deal with Gambro Renal Products
NxStage Medical Inc. inked another supply deal for its blood tubing products for hemodialysis, this time with Lakewood, Colo.-based Gambro Renal Products Inc.
The deal, under which the Lawrence dialysis products maker’s Medisystems Corp. subsidiary will supply Gambrowith its ReadySet and Streamline blood tubing sets, is the second deal NxStage inked this month.
It follows the renewal of a similar arrangement with Bethlehem, Pa.-based B.Braun Medical and a long-standing deal with Henry Schein Inc.
MassDevice Q&A: Jeff Burbank
More than 20 years of developing, marketing and manufacturing products for end-stage renal disease patients led NxStage Medical Inc. founder, president and CEO Jeff Burbank to a realizations: The key to improving care is to look beyond the hospital and into the home.
The Lawrence-based company makes a home dialysis system that allows patients with kidney disease to better manage their own treatment. Burbank talked with MassDevice about how the success of the product hinges on improving patients’ quality of life and how the success of the company relies on the timing of finding and keeping great employees.
MassDevice Q&A: Mark Tauscher
Mark Tauscher joined PLC Medical Systems Inc. in January 2000 after more than 20 years in medical product sales, marketing and management. When he spoke with MassDevice, the company had just announced strong sales and narrowed losses for the first quarter, largely due to strong international sales.
Tauscher told us about the rocky road PLC traveled in getting FDA approval for its first device, a transmyocardial laser revascularization system, how it decided the RenalGuard device would be its follow-up and why he sees the global credit crunch as the industry’s biggest challenge.