Deals Of The Week Looks For A Replacement

Few deals are as relieving as the National Football League’s labor settlement with its “real” refs this week. Though it’s little consolation to fans of the Green Bay Packers, who were robbed of a victory as Monday night's game crew displayed a unique combination of blindness and temporary insanity, the need to replace the replacements with the genuine article couldn’t have been more plain.

But for Cardiome Pharma, the dismantling of its partnership with Merck & Co. on Sept. 26 won’t provide much relief at all – and might leave Cardiome scurrying to find a replacement as well. Merck returned rights to Cardiome’s atrial fibrillation drug, vernakalant, ending a three-year-old agreement, during the lifetime of which the drug was approved in September 2010 and marketed in Europe as Brinavess. Vernakalant is approved in the EU specifically for rapid conversion of recent onset atrial fibrillation to sinus rhythm in adults.

Merck once saw such promise in the therapy that it expanded its original deal. The pharma initially paid Cardiome $60 million upfront in April 2009 to obtain global rights to the oral version of vernakalant, as well as rights to the intravenous version outside North America. Then, in July 2011, it bought out Astellas’ partnership with Cardiome, which covered the intravenous drug in North America. Cardiome received two additional milestone payments totaling $45 million from Merck for the submission and eventual approval of the intravenous drug in Europe, as well as $26 million total to date from the Astellas deal.

But worries mounted for the drug, as its safety was called into question when one patient receiving the intravenous version died. Its regulatory path was complicated by requests for more data and a narrower patient population, and safety concerns surrounding Sanofi’s rival drug Multaq (dronedarone) shadowed Cardiome’s compound. Meanwhile, sales of the drug appear to have slowed; neither company breaks out sales of the drug, but Cardiome’s partnership revenue from Merck totaled barely $1 million in 2011, according to its annual report (pdf, see note 15).

Merck finally said in March that it would discontinue trials on the oral version; Cardiome since has laid off most of its staff, and CEO Doug Janzen left the company in July. While it seemed to be holding onto hope that it could find a new partner for the drug, analysts weren’t optimistic. “It’s likely that any partner the company could find for the drug would have the same issues as Merck,” Morningstar’s David Krempa told "The Pink Sheet" DAILY in March.

Cardiome interim CEO Bill Hunter tried to provide clarity in a Sept. 26 conference call discussing Merck’s decision to end the deal, saying that Cardiome would attempt to move the drug forward on its own. But he said Cardiome’s remaining management had not yet hashed out the details of the drug’s transition back from Merck, and never mentioned trying to forge a partnership with someone new.

Hunter did, however, hint that the company could be sold. “[A]s a company with a small market capitalization, one that has a pharmaceutical product in a major market in a major disease indication for sale, that is a pretty unique position,” he said. Now unencumbered by partnerships, Cardiome could represent a clean, fire-sale takeout, but only for a buyer willing to bear its risks. That’s a mildly ironic fate for a company that partnered with Merck expressly “to de-risk our business,” as Janzen put it three years ago, then deemed its own pipeline too dangerous to develop.

There are plenty of other companies waiting to be picked off this week, whether they get the call or not. See which deals we’ve flagged in this week’s installment of…

Roche/Galaxy: About four months after Takeda returned rights for an anti-hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) antibody program for cancer, Galaxy has found a new pharma partner, licensing exclusive worldwide development and commercialization rights to antibodies targeting fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) to Roche. Under the deal announced Sept. 24, Roche will pay privately held Galaxy $8 million upfront, with the potential for preclinical, clinical and regulatory development milestones, as well as royalties on product sales. Roche said FGF2 is over-expressed in many types of cancer and is known to stimulate both angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, which can play an in important role in metastasis. For some tumors, a high level of FGF2 has been found to correlate with poor clinical outcomes, the Swiss pharma said in a release. While the deal covers an entire program, key to the transaction is a novel humanized monoclonal antibody discovered by Galaxy that has demonstrated inhibition of certain tumors in animal models. In 2006, California-based Galaxy licensed an HGF antibody to Takeda for $2 million upfront plus milestones and royalties. This past June, Takeda ended the collaboration and returned all related intellectual property to Galaxy. — Joseph Haas

Covidien’s Mallinckrodt/CNS Therapeutics: Mallinckrodt, the soon-to-be spun-out pharmaceutical arm of Covidien, announced Sept. 24 that it has agreed to purchase privately held CNS Therapeutics for $100 million. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter. St. Paul, Minn.-based CNS currently has one marketed product, Gablofen (baclofen injection) – the generic version of Novartis AG’s Lioresal. The drug is approved for the treatment of severe spasticity. CNS also offers Mallinckrodt a pipeline of pain and spasticity products, including other concentrations of Gablofen. Representatives at the company would not discuss the pipeline. Covidien announced in December its plans to spin out Mallinckrodt as a public company by mid-2013. Covidien will retain its medical products and devices businesses, which posted sales of about $9.6 billion in 2011; Mallinckrodt brought in about $2 billion during the same time period. “Our medical devices and pharmaceuticals both hold industry-leading positions. They have quite different business models, sales channels, customers, capital requirements and talent basis. They also have innovation pipelines that differ substantially in length, regulatory approval requirements, possible risks and potential returns,” said Covidien President and CEO Jose Almeida during a December conference call. – Lisa LaMotta

Valeant/QLT: The ravenously acquisitive Canadian pharma Valeant struck again on Sept. 24, taking global rights to an ophthalmologic drug from QLT. Valeant paid $112.5 million total for rights to Visudyne (verteporfin for injection), approved to treat certain forms of wet age-related macular degeneration. The purchase price included $62.5 million for US rights and $50 million for the right to receive royalties from sales in the rest of the world, where QLT has partnered the drug with Novartis. Sales of the drug were $21 million and $14 million in and out of the US, respectively. Valeant also agreed to make contingent payments of $5 million covering development of QLT's laser program in the US, $15 million related to the Novartis royalties, and unspecified royalties if Visudyne is approved for new indications. Currently, the drug is sold in 80 countries to treat two forms of subfoveal choroidal neovascularization, the formation of leaky blood vessels that occurs in patients with wet AMD. QLT, which is weathering a turbulent year that included the takeover of its board by activist investors, said it will return cash to shareholders and continue developing its synthetic oral retinoid program. - P.B.

Clinipace/Paragon: Contract research organization Clinipace expanded its global presence by acquiring Paragon Biomedical, a CRO with offices in Irvine, Calif.; High Wycombe, U.K.; and Trivandrum, India. The Sept. 25 deal, for which terms were not disclosed, doubles Clinipace's size, giving it 430 employees worldwide. Clinipace now has 12 offices in eight countries. The Morrisville, N.C.-based company already had strengths in oncology and digital platform technology; the addition of Paragon gives it further expertise in the cardiovascular, immunology, infectious diseases, CNS, respiratory, dermatology and medical-device areas. The companies will join forces without laying off any staff, and key members of Paragon management will assume positions at Clinipace. Privately held Clinipace raised $13.3 million in debt earlier this month, according to an SEC filing, and was backed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, Hatteras Venture Partners and Brook Private Equity Advisors in a $15 million Series C round last year. - P.B.

Official thanks to Flickr user yourdon, who kept us from being penalized by sharing his photo via Creative Commons.

No Glass Ceilings: Medtech Women Gather at Unique Industry Meet-Up

MedtechWOMEN co-founders Amy Belt and Deborah Kilpatrick

Something new happened in the medical device world two weeks ago. It wasn't a new technology or a big research discovery, nor was it a breakthrough treatment for heart disease, cancer or diabetes, though it could possibly lead to one of these.  

What happened was an unprecedented medical technology conference, featuring exclusively women speakers, panelists and attendees. The sold-out Medtech Vision conference in Menlo Park, Calif. on September 15 and 16 brought together more than 200 business executives, entrepreneurs, investors, physicians, inventors, providers, patient advocates, policymakers and regulators and generated an energy that attendees claimed – and I will vouch -- was not just palpable but electrifying.  

The idea was hatched a year ago when Covidien Ventures director Amy Belt got fed up with the typical medtech meeting scene. "I was looking up from the audience and realized that there were no women on the podium – again. I was frustrated not to see women on the podium, as well as on boards and executive teams, because I know the women experts are out there and I wanted to hear from them," Belt said. So she pulled together a like-minded group and set about, with major support from Covidien, Abbott Laboratories and law firm Fish & Richardson, to create something new.  

The invitation that landed in my inbox July 27 came from a new organization called MedtechWOMEN and promoted the conference as "the first ever to highlight women on the forefront of medical innovation." Intrigued, I anticipated speeches about glass ceilings and male dominated C-suites. Boy, was I wrong. Instead, the presentations and panel discussions proved true to the meeting's agenda: to identify solutions to today's big challenges in medtech: a jittery venture capital community, shifting models of care delivery and reimbursement, increasing regulatory demands, and laser-like attention to healthcare outcomes and costs.

Speakers set right to the task with pointed advice. On an investor panel, Versant Ventures managing director Beckie Robertson advised against entrepreneurs working on small projects. "The opportunity for a win-win is in meeting a huge unmet need and getting out before commercialization," she said. Johnson & Johnson worldwide VP of new business development Susan Morano agreed, highlighting spectacular exits in the last two years for companies that genuinely responded to unmet needs. 

Among big populations with unmet needs are women themselves, noted Lynn Westphal, director of women's health at Stanford University. Westphal named several common diseases and treatments that are inadequately studied in women, explaining that females often display symptoms and respond to therapy differently than males. Imagine the opportunities, she suggested, awaiting companies that break the mold and extensively enroll women in large trials for cardiovascular, cancer, diabetes and other diseases. 

Interventionalists and surgeons had their say, too. Surgical oncologist Shyamali Singhal explained that for new technology to be adopted, "it has to be faster, easier, and more doable than what I'm doing now in surgery." And the designers of those new technologies need to interact more with physician users, said Bonnie Weiner, a cardiovascular researcher, clinician and former president of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions. "Nobody ever asks us how we're going to use the device. Come to the cath lab and follow us around!" 

On a reimbursement panel, speakers agreed that the days of "build it and they will come" are over, and the way forward is to improve health outcomes or procedure workflow. "We look for clinically meaningful improvement in outcomes" backed by high-quality evidence, said Betsy Thompson, chief medical officer for the San Francisco regional office of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Advancing patient safety is also a good bet, she said: "If a new product improves safety but not effectiveness, we would probably cover it." 

Liesl Cooper, VP of global healthcare economics, policy and reimbursement at Covidien, pointed out that with patients paying more for their care, industry also needs to think more about how to educate them. "We're not used to that," she said. "Shame on the medtech industry for not touting better outcomes such as a 24-hour stay compared to a six-day stay!"

So what difference did it make that the people talking were all women? Amy Belt put it this way in her opening speech: "Leadership doesn't have to wear a navy blue blazer. Women represent 51% of the population, 58% of the population over 65, spend two out of three healthcare dollars, are half of the graduating classes of physicians today and over 90% of all the registered nurses. Why would it make sense for women not to be significantly represented in leadership positions where key decisions are made about the delivery of care and investment in innovation when they represent half the population, control the healthcare dollar and provide the majority of healthcare services?"

Beyond Belt's introduction, though, the conference was not about advancing women, but about advancing medical technology and healthcare. MedtechWOMEN founder Deborah Kilpatrick, a senior VP at diagnostics firm CardioDx, was pleased it went that way. Women's place in the industry "was just not what we were there to discuss," Kilpatrick said. 

Nevertheless, the thousand-watt energy at Medtech Vision was a departure from the standard atmospherics of industry conferences. It reflected, I think, the pride of 200 women medtech leaders seeing themselves assembled in one place, listening closely to each other, making new connections, and realizing – unexpectedly, inspiringly – that solving the challenges ahead may suddenly have gotten a little bit easier. -- Mary Houghton

Deals of the Week Goes Hollywood

It's not every day that a biopharma company swaps dreams of developing a blockbuster for dreams of developing a different sort of blockbuster (GSK's documentary dreams notwithstanding) but today ImaRx Therapeutics is doing just that. The erstwhile vascular therapeutics play was trading about 99% off its IPO price last we checked in -- investors had seemingly given up on blockbusters of the first variety.

Well, say goodbye to ImaRx, now just a shell of a company anyway. Say hello to Sycamore Films.

Sadly it's unfortunately not very uncommon for a biotech to meet its demise, especially in today's environment. But it did get us thinking. If the biopharmaceutical industry were a movie, what would it be? (C'mon people, it's Friday.) The first one that springs to mind for this blogger is Risky Business. (Of course the medical devices world needs its own movie too: this bit of Medtronic news has us thinking about the end of Se7en ... "what's in the box??!?!")

Your suggestions in the comments, pls. Meanwhile, not so long ago in a conference room not so far away . . .

Gen-Probe/Pacific Biosciences: Molecular diagnostics provider Gen-Probe, one of the original developers of nucleic-acid-based diagnostic test platforms, is getting into the sequencing game, via a $50 million investment in privately held Pacific Biosciences, part of the sequencing company’s Series F. The companies will also co-develop systems based on PacBio’s single-molecule sequencing technology aimed at the clinical diagnostics market. They will work exclusively with each other for two-and-a-half years on the program. Several other companies including IBM, Illumina, Life Technologies, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, and newcomer Ion Torrent are developing real-time, single-molecule sequencing technologies, with some geared towards eventually being able to look at the entire human genome. The move by Gen-Probe appears to be part of a strategy gaining favor with life science tools providers to provide an integrated sequencing offering including sample prep, sequence measurement, assays, and perhaps even bioinformatics in one package. Expectations are that technical validation of these systems will come in the next five years, and with sequencing costs rapidly decreasing – one start-up recently suggested the capability for whole-genome sequencing at under $100 around year-end – the clinical diagnostics market appears to be within reach for these companies. --Mark Ratner

Tranzyme/Norgine: In seeking a European development and commercialization partner for ulimorelin, a ghrelin agonist about to enter Phase III in gastrointestinal dysmotility disorders such as post-operative ileus, Tranzyme Pharma thinks it found the perfect fit. Tranzyme’s June 16 tie-up with Netherlands-based Norgine BV includes only $8 million up-front. But more importantly to the North Carolina biotech, the deal leaves it with North American rights to its lead program, while Norgine obtains rights in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East and Africa. In addition to Norgine’s focus on gastrointestinal disorders, CEO Vipin Garg said one of the factors he likes best about the partnership is the regional nature of the deal and in particular that Norgine is “pan-European” rather than specializing in its home market or just a few countries. “A lot of companies want worldwide rights nowadays for products [or] just US or North American rights," told “The Pink Sheet” DAILY. “In our case, we wanted to retain those rights for ourselves and perhaps partner them later or even have the ability to build a small sales force” to sell the drug to hospital-based docs. Beyond the upfront payment, Tranzyme also is eligible to earn up to $150 million in development, approval and commercial milestones; Garg would not break down the biobucks specifically other than to say that the first milestone would be realized upon completion of the first Phase III trial.—Joseph Haas

Bayer/OncoMed: OncoMed Pharmaceuticals pulled in an eyebrow-raising $154 million Series B round in 2008, but investors apparently aren't the only ones that think the company is on to something. The cancer stem cell-focused biotech has signed its second major pharmaceutical collaboration – the only two significant deals in the space to date. The Redwood City, Calif., firm received $40 million upfront June 17 from Bayer Schering Pharma to co-discover and co-develop five agents that target the Wnt cancer stem cell pathway. The new partnership follows a 2007 deal with GlaxoSmithKline in which privately held OncoMed received an undisclosed upfront payment and equity investment in exchange for option rights to four monoclonal antibodies targeting the Notch cancer stem cell pathway. With potential discovery, development, regulatory and sales milestones, the deal with GSK was valued at up to $1.4 billion. The Bayer/OncoMed tie-up is similarly risk-adjusted: for starters, the German pharma gets an option to license development and commercial rights to antibody and protein therapeutics developed under the collaboration up through completion of Phase I. OncoMed can receive up to $397.5 million in milestones for each antibody or protein therapeutic developed and commercialized successfully, along with double-digit sales royalties. OncoMed will also assist Bayer in developing small molecule cancer therapies that target the Wnt pathway, which could earn it up to $112 million per successful candidate.--JAH

Neurocrine/Abbott: Less than a month after Neurocrine Biosciences said it was seeking a partner to advance into Phase III its novel gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist, elagolix, it sealed a deal with Abbott. Abbott agreed to pay $75 million upfront to develop and globally commercialize elagolix for the treatment of endometriosis-related pain, and undertake Phase II studies for the treatment of uterine fibroids. Neurocrine, a bit of a comeback tale since losing lead asset indiplon a few years ago, also could earn up to $500 million in milestones, mainly tied to pre-commercial achievements, and will receive undisclosed sales royalties. In addition to endometriosis and uterine fibroids, Neurocrine believes elagolix could be used to treat prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia, since the drug lowers testosterone levels in men. Though Neurocrine had been in talks with several potential partners, Abbott's experience with the GnRH mechanism made it an ideal fit, President and Chief Executive Kevin Gorman told “The Pink Sheet” DAILY. Abbott sells Lupron (leuprolide), an injectable GnRH agonist, which is one of two approved therapies for endometriosis. Leuprolide also is indicated to treat prostate cancer, which Gorman said adds value to the deal since elagolix is in preclinical studies for this use.--Carlene Olsen

Neurocrine/Boehringer Ingelheim: Sequels aren't usually as good as the original and this is frankly no exception. But Neurocrine's second deal this week, announced less than a day after its deal with Abbott, is nothing to sniff at either. Neurocrine on Thursday inked a pact with Boehringer Ingelheim to discover and develop small molecule GPR119 agonists to treat type-2 diabetes and other indications. Neurocrine gets $10 million up-front plus research funding and is elgible for development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments and royalties on any products BI develops from the collaboration. GPR119 is a GPCR thought to play a variety of roles in inducing insulin secretion; BI has made no secret of its desire to become a player in diabetes, though it hasn't done many deals. --CM

Covidien/Somanetics: Call it the Covidien Creep. Just as the medical device company moved slowly into the vascular and neurovascular business with the successive acquisitions of Bacchus Vascular, VNUS Technologies and this month's $2.6 billion acquisition of ev3 Inc., Covidien now is building its oximetry and monitoring products with its second sizable acquisition in less than a year with the purchase of publicly traded Somanetics Inc. Covidien agreed to pay $250 million, or $25 per share, for the company, seller of the INVOS System, which measures blood oxygen levels in the brain of surgical patients so clinicians can detect and correct a variety of threatening complications. The technology pairs nicely with the Bispectral Index, the only system capable of measuring the effects of anesthesia and sedatives on the brain. Covidien added the Bispectral to its oximetry and monitoring group last year by acquiring Aspect Medical Systems Inc. for $210 million. The combined revenues from Aspect and Somanetics will add $150 million in annual revenue to the Oximetry and Monitoring group, which reported $636 million in revenue in each of the last two fiscal years. Even with the additional revenue, oximetry and monitoring will likely be the fourth largest in Covidien’s medical device unit but that could change with future acquisitions.--Tom Salemi

Basilea/Almirall: Switzerland's Basilea Pharmaceutia has signed on Spain's Almirall to be the exclusive distributor of Basilea's eczema treatment Toctino (alitretinoin) in 10 European markets and Mexico. Now Basilea can benefit from broader sales of Toctino without making costly investments to build its own commercial infrastructure in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain. At the same time, Almirall, a top 10 dermatology country in Europe, gains a novel therapy for its portfolio – Toctino is the only therapy approved for adults with severe chronic hand eczema unresponsive to potent topical corticosteroids. Almirall will make an upfront payment of €5 million, and Basilea also could receive milestone payments related to the launch of Toctino in two key markets of up to €11 million, plus €11 million more in pre-specified sales milestones. Basilea also retains the right to co-promote Toctino in selected markets. Though Basilea would not disclose its transfer price for Toctino, Merrill Lynch analysts estimate that the biotech will receive 44 percent to 55 percent of the product's revenues generated in Almirall's distribution markets. Toctino's fortunes are especially important for Basilea given the high-profile failure and break-up with Johnson & Johnson over its next likely commercial candidate, the anti-infective drug ceftobiprole. Since then, the biotech has made aggressive moves to regain its footing, including a licensing deal with Astellas Pharma earlier this year. --CO

image from flickr user emma.kate used under a creative commons license

Venture Round: Covidien Ventures Out

The announcement that Covidien Ltd. launched a venture fund should come as no surprise to faithful IN VIVO readers. We reported on the groups's creation back in our May issue in a cover story on the company. Despite our prodding, the company opted not to provide details on the group until this week.

But the news still warrants review as this is a significant departure for Covidien, the former Tyco Healthcare. In its previous life, the group now known as Covidien had a dismal record when it came to investing in R&D and new technologies. (See chart, right.) In the late 1990s, Tyco grew its health care business through significant acquisitions of low margin hospital supplies and other mostly low-tech endeavors.

Trouble hit in 2002 when Tyco fell under the weight of its storied investigations. At the time, the company didn’t have the resources to commit to R&D even if it wanted to.

But all that is in the past. Covidien is a full year removed from its Tyco ties, and it’s working to restore its research and development capabilities.

The press release doesn’t give much information, but VentureWire Lifescience offers a bit more. Most interesting is the team Covidien assembled to make the investments (which will be $5 million on average in early stage companies.)

Covidien has built a team of three to manage its new venture wing. Daniel T. Sheehan, a former general partner at Affinity Capital Management, is heading the new operation as vice president of corporate venture capital. He is joined by Dave Neustaedter, former director of commercial strategy and advanced technologies at Stryker Development LLC, and Joseph Graham, who worked in strategic marketing for Covidien's patient care and safety business.

Covidien deserves credit for dipping into the venture business to find its new leader. Too often, corporations try to staff their venture groups from people within the organization. (Of course, it’s usually difficult to lure folks from the venture side back to the corporate venture side.) An experienced venture capitalist should come with the contacts to find deals that might not typically be shopped to corporate investors (i.e. VCs looking for some dumb corporate money.)

The additions of Neustaedter and Graham give the new group expertise both in corporate innovation as well as the ins and outs of Covidien itself, which is a far flung organization with businesses and divisions across the globe.

Covidien's move might be deemed a bit counter-culture as the number of corporate devices investors and acquirers is dwindling. But the company has been on a frenetic shopping spree over the past two years, buying eight companies over the past two years including some big-ticket buys like Vivant Medical and Confluent Surgical.

Still the company isn't taking big chances with its purchases. Instead, it's moving into opportunities that lie within or generously abut its current borders. "When you look at the acquisitions that we've done, they are focused and purpose-driven," Jose Almeida, head of Covidien's medical device segment, told us back in the spring. "They have niche specialties and market advantages, and they are synergized to our sales channels. They augment our technology base. They bring potential double-digit growth for the 10-year period that we analyze the sale."

We expect the venture group will take the same measured approach, but perhaps Covidien will let its hair fall down just a bit further.

Covidien Takes Small Bites

In a recently announced deal, Covidien Ltd. said it would acquire a line of diagnostics products from Pinyons Medical Technology Inc., a privately-held company based in Park City, Utah. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.

Even without knowing the price, it's fair to say that a decade ago a deal like this would hardly be worthy of a mention. In those days when Covidien--perhaps better known as Tyco Healthcare--bought something, it BOUGHT something. The company--as a division of Tyco International--built itself into a major seller of hospital supplies and products through a series of significant acquisitions, including billion dollar-plus acquisitions of Kendall International, Mallinckrodt, Sherwood-Davis & Geck,and U.S. Surgical.

All that came to an end, however, in 2002, when Tyco International got dragged into the storm of corporate scandals that rocked Enron, Worldcom and others. The health care group was never implicated.

Fast forward five years: Tyco Healthcare spun out of Tyco and took the name Covidien, "an original name, inspired by themes of collaboration and life... selected for its global meaning" according to a 2007 press release. (While we might quibble with the global reference, we do agree it isn't likely to provoke images of Dennis Kozlowski.)

Since that time, Covidien has been building itself up through a strategy of acquisitions, investment and high profile promotions. (See photo.) But these acquisitions are much more measured than in the old Tyco days and mostly fit into the company's existing businesses.

That's where Pinyons fits in. Covidien acquired a number of devices and related assets, including the Pinyons POWRSyringe Injector and the POWRSyringe Monitor. These devices facilitate manual x-ray contrast media injections during angiography procedures performed in the cardiac catheterization laboratory and interventional radiology suite.

Over the past few years most of Covidien's acquisitions have been related to its medical device business unit, the largest of Covidien's four businesses. The new acquisition likely will slide into its imaging business unit, but Covidien also has a pharmaceuticals and medical supplies business that's worth watching. Anyone interested in reading more, can check out our May IN VIVO for a feature on Covidien's new life as an independent health care company.