07.26.10
The MedTech Group Merges with Advanced Polymers
The MedTech Group Inc. has taken another step toward its ultimate goal of becoming a manufacturer of complex medical devices.
The South Plainfield, N.J.-based company has merged with Advanced Polymers Inc., a Salem, N.H.-based firm that manufactures heat-shrink tubing and balloons used in angioplasty procedures.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The deal follows the MedTech Group’s 2008 acquisition of design and development firm TDC Medical Inc., a move both Advanced Polymers and the MedTech Group cited as factoring into their decision to merge. The deal gives Advanced Polymers access to the MedTech Group’s global manufacturing footprint, including its operation in Costa Rica. It also bolsters the engineering capabilities of both companies, which now will have more than 100 engineers devoted to design, quality and manufacturing.
“This is a unique strategic combination of capabilities and expertise that will provide substantial growth opportunities for the combined company,” said Mark Saab, president of Advanced Polymers. “As MedTech has continued to expand its presence in the interventional markets, many devices built at MedTech have mission critical components made by Advanced Polymers. The combination also allows Advanced Polymers to leverage MedTech’s full contract manufacturing, supply chain management and TDC Medical’s design capabilities as we continue to grow our catheter development and manufacturing business and also look to expand our extrusion and component business.”
A news release issued by the MedTech Group about the merger said the two companies’ combined capabilities will create a “dynamic, comprehensive” offering that includes full scale design and development as well as global contract manufacturing for complex components and devices. The release called the combined company (which is getting a new name) an industry leader in plastics based solutions and technology.
MedTech Group President and CEO George Blank said the merger will help his company achieve its goal of investing in proprietary technology and processes.
“Our company now has a complete capability to assist our customers in delivering integrated solutions for the most demanding new interventional and minimally invasive devices,” he explained. “To reflect this enhanced direction, we will be rebranding the company to more accurately communicate the company’s position in the marketplace. A new name will be rolled out in the coming months.”
Advanced Polymers’ co-founders, Mark and Elisia Saab, will be “significant shareholders” in the combined company, and Mark Saab will continue to serve as president of Advanced Polymers. He also will serve on the MedTech board of directors.
The MedTech Group has manufacturing facilities in West Haven, Conn.; Vega Baja, Puerto Rico; and Heredia, Costa Rica. Its design and development facilities are located in Marlborough, Mass.; Sunnyvale, Calif.; and Boulder, Colo. MedTech also maintains a supply chain office in Singapore.
Tegra Medical Buys Facility in Latin America
Tegra Medical looked south of the border for its latest acquisition. The Franklin, Mass.-based device developer has purchased a 20,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in a tax-free trade zone in San Jose, Costa Rica.
The new operation, which was used for metal working and contained a range of manufacturing equipment, was bought from Penn United Technologies Inc., a Cabot, Pa.-based manufacturer of high-precision products for the medical, defense, energy, electronics and automotive markets. Neither company disclosed a purchase price for the manufacturing plant.
In a news release, Tegra Medical President and CEO Bob Roche said the new facility would enable his company to provide customers with a low-cost alternative to help them better manage costs for mature products facing pricing pressures.
“We’ve established our GENESIS Tech Center, Quick Wire & Tube service and Lean Centers of Excellence in the United States to execute our new product launches efficiently,” he noted. “We will make additional investments in capabilities and infrastructure so our Costa Rican operation will have many of the same systems and capabilities as our other manufacturing plants.”
During the next few months, Tegra will add Swiss machining and a Class-7 controlled manufacturing environment for assembly and packaging. The company also will pursue ISO 13485 and 9001 certifications for the Costa Rican facility, Roche said.
Formed in 2007, Tegra Medical manufactures wire and tubular components for the medical device industry. The company was formed by private equity firm Riverside Partners LLC, which brought together three companies—New England Precision Grinding, Accu-Met Laser and American Medical Instruments.
Ximedica Expanding Both Inside and Out
Ximedica LLC is experiencing some growing pains. The Providence, R.I.-based contract manufacturing firm is expanding its headquarters by 23,000 to increase capacity for the development of capital equipment and disposables. The extra space also will accommodate increasing customer demand, both from current clients as well as future customers.
Currently housed in an 80,000-square-foot facility, Ximedica is expanding into an area of its building that previously had been sublet. The expansion project is expected to be completed early next year.
The 25-year-old company also operates an office in Hong Kong, China, to support its outsourcing effort to Asia, but there currently are no plans to expand that facility.
Besides its aesthetic transformation, Ximedica is undergoing an expansion of its services as well. The company recently launched a new healthcare initiative designed to help medical device designers and manufacturers better understand the ways in which their products are used by healthcare providers and patients. To oversee efforts in this area, Ximedica created a new group called Human Centered Healthcare Services. The group, according to a news release issued by the company, is charged with using a “human centered design approach to help healthcare providersovercome complex challenges affecting the safety, efficiency, and quality of care delivery.” Put more simply, the company is going to help hospitals improve efficiency and reduce errors.
“Nobody has ever looked holistically at the [healthcare] system and applied the product development process to hospitals’ processes,” Dan Reifsteck, Ximedica’s chief operating officer, told Medical Product
Outsourcing. “This initiative will help us solve any potential problems with a product before it gets to the patient. It will also help to ensure the useability of a product by healthcare professionals and that’s important.”
The company’s entry into the provider side of healthcare is a natural extension of the company’s experience working in clinical environments to help clients develop new products, executives said. Ximedica will draw upon many of the same disciplines used in product development—namely, observational research, human factors, systems design, and quality engineering—to help improve hospital care.
“Our firsthand experience on the frontlines of care, observing clinical proceduresin all kinds of situations, has given us insights into the many challenges facing hospitals today,” remarked Aidan Petrie, Ximedica co-founder and chief innovation officer. “As we seek ways to help our device clients design and deliver products to better serve clinicians and patients, we also see opportunities to use our skills and expertise to help make improvements to delivery systems as well. These are dynamic and complex environments, where variation is often the norm and there are many risks for everything from miscommunications to injury. A human-centered design approach is one that embraces that variation and uses human factors disciplines to provide solutions based on how people want, and need, to work in order to accomplish their tasks safely and effectively.”
Ximedica has hired Kristin Simoens to lead the Healthcare Services group. She most recently worked as a marketing director for Advanced Wound Care at Covidien plc.
British Firm Acquires U.S. Manufacturer of Silicone Devices
Polymer products manufacturer Fenner PLC has acquired MRI Manufacturing & Research Inc. (MRI Medical), a privately-held company based in Tucson, Ariz.
The deal, for an undisclosed amount, includes the acquisition of gross assets of $2.6 million.
United Kingdom-based Fenner produces polymer products such as heavyweight PVC and rubber belts, which are used in products including conveyor belt engines and medical textiles. The firm employs nearly 3,900 people and reported sales of $795.3 million in 2009.
Mark Abrahams, CEO of Fenner, said the deal will allow his company to expand into the medical device arena. “MRI Medical and Secant Medical, which we acquired as part of Prodesco in 2008, are both wholly engaged in the medical industry, using business models which enable their customers to introduce less-invasive medical devices. The acquisition of MRI Medical is another important step toward the goal of building a significant presence for Fenner in the medical industry,” he said in a news release.
MRI Medical’s president claimed the move will help his firm expand internationally and foster the development of new technologies. “We are pleased to join the Fenner Group of companies,” Joseph Lee said. “We will be able to draw on Fenner’s deep financial resources and diverse technical strength to expand our business worldwide.”
Fenner Group was founded in 1861 and has global operations through its subsidiaries, Fenner Dunlop, Fenner Drives, Fenner Precision, James Dawson, and Fenner Advanced Sealing Technologies.
MRI Medical develops and manufactures silicone-based devices for customers, including medical device companies.
Biotech in Brief
Biotechnology Industry Shakes Off Recession in 2009 with First-Time Profit
The global biotechnology industry emerged from the recession last year with relatively little long-term damage, delivering solid overall results that enabled biotech companies to earn a profit for the first time in history, according to an annual report.
Biotechnology firms in the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia reported an aggregate net profit of $3.7 billion last year, a marked improvement compared with the $1.8 billion net loss the industry posted in 2008. Analysts attributed the industry’s historic achievement to a dramatic increase in net profit among U.S. biotechnology firms (and that profit was driven by cost-cutting and operational efficiency measures companies put in place to minimize the impact of the recession).
“In both the general economy and the biotech industry, the worst is clearly over, but things are not reverting to business as usual. In many ways, the experience of the global biotech industry so far has mirrored that of the global economy,” states a report from global advisory firm Ernst & Young titled,“Beyond borders Global biotechnology report 2010.”“On the surface, it would appear that the worst is indeed over. Aggregate funding levels rebounded nicely in 2009 and strategic alliance activity remains robust. Financial performance has been fairly strong—particularly under the circumstances—with remarkable improvement on the bottom line as companies have engaged in belt tightening. The market cap of smaller companies, which had taken a beating, has rebounded impressively, making up much of the ground that was ceded in late 2008 and early 2009.”
Indeed, the industry bounced back relatively well from shrinking investment capital, a spooked stock market and corporate cost-cutting measures: Biotechnology companies in the United States, Canada and Europe raised $23.2 billion in capital, a 42 percent increase compared with the amount of capital raised in 2008. American biotech firms, in particular, had a banner year—net income increased nearly 10-fold to $3.7 billion, due mostly to revenue growth, cost-cutting measures and a change in accounting rules for acquisitions. Total U.S. capital raised by the industry skyrocketed 39 percent to $18 billion, while venture capital raised mushroomed to $4.6 billion, the second-highest total in history (American companies raised $5.5 billion in venture capital in 2007).
Still, there were subtle reminders that the industry didn’t escape the worldwide economic firestorm totally unscathed. Revenues of biotechnology companies in the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia fell 9 percent to $79.1 billion, according to the report. Analysts attributed most of the decline to the exclusion of Genentech’s financial performance in 2009 (the firm was acquired by pharmaceutical firm Roche). If Genentech had been excluded from the 2008 results, industry revenue would have grown by 1 percent.
Revenues of public biotechnology companies in the United States fell 13 percent to $56.6 billion, while the value of merger and acquisition transactions involving American biotech firms (excluding the Roche-Genentech transaction) was sliced in half, amounting to $14.1 billion. Only three deals were worth more than $1 billion, the report stated. The gap between what analysts referred to as the “haves” (large biotechnology firms) and “have nots” (smaller companies) continued to widen in 2009, posing new challenges for emerging businesses. The distribution of funding became more skewed during the year, as did allotment of capital. Consider the following statistics: In the United States, the top 20 percent of fund-raising companies garnered 74.1 percent of capital raised in 2008, according to the Ernst & Young report. Last year, the proportion raised by the same quintile of biotechnology firms had increased to 78.5 percent. Conversely, the 20 percent of companies that raised the least funding received only 0.9 percent of capital in 2008 and got even less (0.6 percent) in 2009. A closer examination at the amount of capital raised furthers the “have”-“have nots” theory. More than 40 percent of the money raised by public biotechnology firms in the United States last year went to just four companies, two of which—Human Genome Sciences (of Rockville, Md.) and Dendreon Corp. (of Seattle, Wash.)—raised exceptionally large sums of money based largely upon positive clinical trial news.
“While the overall numbers—capital raised, alliance activity, profitability—are heartening, they only tell part of the story,”the report noted. “Economic dislocations produce winners and losers, and the real impact is found not in aggregates and averages but in measures of variance and standard deviation. While aggregate financing levels have held up well, the availability of capital is challenging for many companies.”
The MedTech Group Inc. has taken another step toward its ultimate goal of becoming a manufacturer of complex medical devices.
The South Plainfield, N.J.-based company has merged with Advanced Polymers Inc., a Salem, N.H.-based firm that manufactures heat-shrink tubing and balloons used in angioplasty procedures.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The deal follows the MedTech Group’s 2008 acquisition of design and development firm TDC Medical Inc., a move both Advanced Polymers and the MedTech Group cited as factoring into their decision to merge. The deal gives Advanced Polymers access to the MedTech Group’s global manufacturing footprint, including its operation in Costa Rica. It also bolsters the engineering capabilities of both companies, which now will have more than 100 engineers devoted to design, quality and manufacturing.
“This is a unique strategic combination of capabilities and expertise that will provide substantial growth opportunities for the combined company,” said Mark Saab, president of Advanced Polymers. “As MedTech has continued to expand its presence in the interventional markets, many devices built at MedTech have mission critical components made by Advanced Polymers. The combination also allows Advanced Polymers to leverage MedTech’s full contract manufacturing, supply chain management and TDC Medical’s design capabilities as we continue to grow our catheter development and manufacturing business and also look to expand our extrusion and component business.”
A news release issued by the MedTech Group about the merger said the two companies’ combined capabilities will create a “dynamic, comprehensive” offering that includes full scale design and development as well as global contract manufacturing for complex components and devices. The release called the combined company (which is getting a new name) an industry leader in plastics based solutions and technology.
MedTech Group President and CEO George Blank said the merger will help his company achieve its goal of investing in proprietary technology and processes.
“Our company now has a complete capability to assist our customers in delivering integrated solutions for the most demanding new interventional and minimally invasive devices,” he explained. “To reflect this enhanced direction, we will be rebranding the company to more accurately communicate the company’s position in the marketplace. A new name will be rolled out in the coming months.”
Advanced Polymers’ co-founders, Mark and Elisia Saab, will be “significant shareholders” in the combined company, and Mark Saab will continue to serve as president of Advanced Polymers. He also will serve on the MedTech board of directors.
The MedTech Group has manufacturing facilities in West Haven, Conn.; Vega Baja, Puerto Rico; and Heredia, Costa Rica. Its design and development facilities are located in Marlborough, Mass.; Sunnyvale, Calif.; and Boulder, Colo. MedTech also maintains a supply chain office in Singapore.
Tegra Medical Buys Facility in Latin America
Tegra Medical looked south of the border for its latest acquisition. The Franklin, Mass.-based device developer has purchased a 20,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in a tax-free trade zone in San Jose, Costa Rica.
The new operation, which was used for metal working and contained a range of manufacturing equipment, was bought from Penn United Technologies Inc., a Cabot, Pa.-based manufacturer of high-precision products for the medical, defense, energy, electronics and automotive markets. Neither company disclosed a purchase price for the manufacturing plant.
In a news release, Tegra Medical President and CEO Bob Roche said the new facility would enable his company to provide customers with a low-cost alternative to help them better manage costs for mature products facing pricing pressures.
“We’ve established our GENESIS Tech Center, Quick Wire & Tube service and Lean Centers of Excellence in the United States to execute our new product launches efficiently,” he noted. “We will make additional investments in capabilities and infrastructure so our Costa Rican operation will have many of the same systems and capabilities as our other manufacturing plants.”
During the next few months, Tegra will add Swiss machining and a Class-7 controlled manufacturing environment for assembly and packaging. The company also will pursue ISO 13485 and 9001 certifications for the Costa Rican facility, Roche said.
Formed in 2007, Tegra Medical manufactures wire and tubular components for the medical device industry. The company was formed by private equity firm Riverside Partners LLC, which brought together three companies—New England Precision Grinding, Accu-Met Laser and American Medical Instruments.
Ximedica Expanding Both Inside and Out
Ximedica LLC is experiencing some growing pains. The Providence, R.I.-based contract manufacturing firm is expanding its headquarters by 23,000 to increase capacity for the development of capital equipment and disposables. The extra space also will accommodate increasing customer demand, both from current clients as well as future customers.
Currently housed in an 80,000-square-foot facility, Ximedica is expanding into an area of its building that previously had been sublet. The expansion project is expected to be completed early next year.
The 25-year-old company also operates an office in Hong Kong, China, to support its outsourcing effort to Asia, but there currently are no plans to expand that facility.
Besides its aesthetic transformation, Ximedica is undergoing an expansion of its services as well. The company recently launched a new healthcare initiative designed to help medical device designers and manufacturers better understand the ways in which their products are used by healthcare providers and patients. To oversee efforts in this area, Ximedica created a new group called Human Centered Healthcare Services. The group, according to a news release issued by the company, is charged with using a “human centered design approach to help healthcare providersovercome complex challenges affecting the safety, efficiency, and quality of care delivery.” Put more simply, the company is going to help hospitals improve efficiency and reduce errors.
“Nobody has ever looked holistically at the [healthcare] system and applied the product development process to hospitals’ processes,” Dan Reifsteck, Ximedica’s chief operating officer, told Medical Product
Outsourcing. “This initiative will help us solve any potential problems with a product before it gets to the patient. It will also help to ensure the useability of a product by healthcare professionals and that’s important.”
The company’s entry into the provider side of healthcare is a natural extension of the company’s experience working in clinical environments to help clients develop new products, executives said. Ximedica will draw upon many of the same disciplines used in product development—namely, observational research, human factors, systems design, and quality engineering—to help improve hospital care.
“Our firsthand experience on the frontlines of care, observing clinical proceduresin all kinds of situations, has given us insights into the many challenges facing hospitals today,” remarked Aidan Petrie, Ximedica co-founder and chief innovation officer. “As we seek ways to help our device clients design and deliver products to better serve clinicians and patients, we also see opportunities to use our skills and expertise to help make improvements to delivery systems as well. These are dynamic and complex environments, where variation is often the norm and there are many risks for everything from miscommunications to injury. A human-centered design approach is one that embraces that variation and uses human factors disciplines to provide solutions based on how people want, and need, to work in order to accomplish their tasks safely and effectively.”
Ximedica has hired Kristin Simoens to lead the Healthcare Services group. She most recently worked as a marketing director for Advanced Wound Care at Covidien plc.
British Firm Acquires U.S. Manufacturer of Silicone Devices
Polymer products manufacturer Fenner PLC has acquired MRI Manufacturing & Research Inc. (MRI Medical), a privately-held company based in Tucson, Ariz.
The deal, for an undisclosed amount, includes the acquisition of gross assets of $2.6 million.
United Kingdom-based Fenner produces polymer products such as heavyweight PVC and rubber belts, which are used in products including conveyor belt engines and medical textiles. The firm employs nearly 3,900 people and reported sales of $795.3 million in 2009.
Mark Abrahams, CEO of Fenner, said the deal will allow his company to expand into the medical device arena. “MRI Medical and Secant Medical, which we acquired as part of Prodesco in 2008, are both wholly engaged in the medical industry, using business models which enable their customers to introduce less-invasive medical devices. The acquisition of MRI Medical is another important step toward the goal of building a significant presence for Fenner in the medical industry,” he said in a news release.
MRI Medical’s president claimed the move will help his firm expand internationally and foster the development of new technologies. “We are pleased to join the Fenner Group of companies,” Joseph Lee said. “We will be able to draw on Fenner’s deep financial resources and diverse technical strength to expand our business worldwide.”
Fenner Group was founded in 1861 and has global operations through its subsidiaries, Fenner Dunlop, Fenner Drives, Fenner Precision, James Dawson, and Fenner Advanced Sealing Technologies.
MRI Medical develops and manufactures silicone-based devices for customers, including medical device companies.
Biotech in Brief
Biotechnology Industry Shakes Off Recession in 2009 with First-Time Profit
The global biotechnology industry emerged from the recession last year with relatively little long-term damage, delivering solid overall results that enabled biotech companies to earn a profit for the first time in history, according to an annual report.
Biotechnology firms in the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia reported an aggregate net profit of $3.7 billion last year, a marked improvement compared with the $1.8 billion net loss the industry posted in 2008. Analysts attributed the industry’s historic achievement to a dramatic increase in net profit among U.S. biotechnology firms (and that profit was driven by cost-cutting and operational efficiency measures companies put in place to minimize the impact of the recession).
“In both the general economy and the biotech industry, the worst is clearly over, but things are not reverting to business as usual. In many ways, the experience of the global biotech industry so far has mirrored that of the global economy,” states a report from global advisory firm Ernst & Young titled,“Beyond borders Global biotechnology report 2010.”“On the surface, it would appear that the worst is indeed over. Aggregate funding levels rebounded nicely in 2009 and strategic alliance activity remains robust. Financial performance has been fairly strong—particularly under the circumstances—with remarkable improvement on the bottom line as companies have engaged in belt tightening. The market cap of smaller companies, which had taken a beating, has rebounded impressively, making up much of the ground that was ceded in late 2008 and early 2009.”
Indeed, the industry bounced back relatively well from shrinking investment capital, a spooked stock market and corporate cost-cutting measures: Biotechnology companies in the United States, Canada and Europe raised $23.2 billion in capital, a 42 percent increase compared with the amount of capital raised in 2008. American biotech firms, in particular, had a banner year—net income increased nearly 10-fold to $3.7 billion, due mostly to revenue growth, cost-cutting measures and a change in accounting rules for acquisitions. Total U.S. capital raised by the industry skyrocketed 39 percent to $18 billion, while venture capital raised mushroomed to $4.6 billion, the second-highest total in history (American companies raised $5.5 billion in venture capital in 2007).
Still, there were subtle reminders that the industry didn’t escape the worldwide economic firestorm totally unscathed. Revenues of biotechnology companies in the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia fell 9 percent to $79.1 billion, according to the report. Analysts attributed most of the decline to the exclusion of Genentech’s financial performance in 2009 (the firm was acquired by pharmaceutical firm Roche). If Genentech had been excluded from the 2008 results, industry revenue would have grown by 1 percent.
Revenues of public biotechnology companies in the United States fell 13 percent to $56.6 billion, while the value of merger and acquisition transactions involving American biotech firms (excluding the Roche-Genentech transaction) was sliced in half, amounting to $14.1 billion. Only three deals were worth more than $1 billion, the report stated. The gap between what analysts referred to as the “haves” (large biotechnology firms) and “have nots” (smaller companies) continued to widen in 2009, posing new challenges for emerging businesses. The distribution of funding became more skewed during the year, as did allotment of capital. Consider the following statistics: In the United States, the top 20 percent of fund-raising companies garnered 74.1 percent of capital raised in 2008, according to the Ernst & Young report. Last year, the proportion raised by the same quintile of biotechnology firms had increased to 78.5 percent. Conversely, the 20 percent of companies that raised the least funding received only 0.9 percent of capital in 2008 and got even less (0.6 percent) in 2009. A closer examination at the amount of capital raised furthers the “have”-“have nots” theory. More than 40 percent of the money raised by public biotechnology firms in the United States last year went to just four companies, two of which—Human Genome Sciences (of Rockville, Md.) and Dendreon Corp. (of Seattle, Wash.)—raised exceptionally large sums of money based largely upon positive clinical trial news.
“While the overall numbers—capital raised, alliance activity, profitability—are heartening, they only tell part of the story,”the report noted. “Economic dislocations produce winners and losers, and the real impact is found not in aggregates and averages but in measures of variance and standard deviation. While aggregate financing levels have held up well, the availability of capital is challenging for many companies.”