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TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2006 MEDICAL DEVICE DAILY PAGE 3 OF 10Financings roundupBayer gets Abbott licenses;InforMedix closes 1st trancheA Medical Device Daily Staff ReportBayer HealthCare Diagnostics (Tarrytown, New York)said it has been granted licenses under patent rights relatingto free prostate specific antigen (PSA) and tacrolimustests from Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, Illinois).Financial details were not disclosed.Bayer said it intends to develop these two new tests forits Advia Centaur and Advia Centaur CP immunoassay systemsimmediately.“By adding free PSA to the oncology portfolio, BayerHealthCare Diagnostics will have a very comprehensivediagnostic menu for prostate cancer markers,” said SamirTaneja, MD, director of urologic oncology, NYU CancerInstitute and School of Medicine (New York).The company said the flexibility will allow physiciansto select the tests they feel most appropriate to differentiatemalignant and benign prostate disease within the individualpatient.“The addition of fPSA and tacrolimus to our assay offeringwill enhance the laboratories ability to increase theirtest offering while optimizing their overall efficiency,” saidTom Warekois, senior vice president global strategic marketing,Bayer Diagnostics.“This is another example of [our] commitment toexpanding the test offering for immunosuppression drugs.Tacrolimus is complementary to cyclosporine, which is currentlyalso in development and scheduled to release in2006,” he said.The free PSA test is primarily ordered when a patienthas a moderately elevated total PSA that does not appearto be caused by a non-cancer-related condition. Theresults give the doctor additional information aboutwhether a patient is at an increased risk of having prostatecancer and helps with the decision of whether to biopsythe prostate.The tacrolimus test is designed to determine theamount of immunosuppressant drug in the patient’s system.Primarily, the drug tacrolimus is used as an immunosuppressantin liver transplant patients.InforMedix Holdings (Rockville, Maryland) reportedthat it closed on the first tranche of a private placementfinancing of $1,380,000, which is a private investment in apublic entity (PIPE) offering that will enable the company toexpand its sales and marketing efforts nationally of itsMed-eMonitor System, and general working capital purposes.The offering will continue until an aggregate of $4.8million of securities are sold or the offering is terminated.“The Med-eMonitor System, InforMedix’ patentedsolution for improving medication and plan adherenceand reducing costs, has consistently achieved medicationadherence rates of greater than 90% in a variety ofclinical settings, as documented in peer-reviewed medicaljournals,” said Dr. Bruce Kehr, chairman and CEO.“Average patient medication adherence rates of 50% costthe U.S healthcare system $100 billion annually in hospitalexpenses alone, and $300 billion in total annualcosts.”Company officials said each $10,000 investment unitconsisted of 1 share of Series A preferred stock, convertibleinto 62,500 shares of the company’s common stock at 16cents a share, Series A-1 warrants to purchase 31,250shares of common stock of InforMedix exercisable at 24cents per share, and Series A-2 warrants to purchase31,250 shares of common stock of InforMedix at 32 centsa share.InforMedix said it has developed the Med-eMonitorSystem as the medication adherence solution for diseasemanagement and clinical drug trial markets.Fresenius Medical Care North America (Lexington,Massachusetts) reported that, in connection with a previouslydisclosed tender offer and consent solicitation byFlorence Acquisition, an indirect subsidiary of FreseniusMedical Care (Bad Homburg, Germany), for any and allof the $159,685,000 in outstanding principal amount of 9%senior subordinated notes due 2011 of Renal Care Group(Nashville, Tennessee), Florence Acquisition is furtherextending the tender offer expiration date to 5 p.m., EST, onFeb. 27.As of Jan. 27, 99.87% of the outstanding aggregate principalamount of the notes had been tendered.Renal Care shareholders approved in August the agreementunder which Fresenius will acquire that company for$48 per share of Renal Care Group common stock.Renal Care serves some 31,900 patients at more than450 outpatient dialysis facilities, and provides acute dialysisservices at more than 210 hospitals. In all, it providesservices in 34 states.Fresenius has a network of about 1,670 dialysis clinicsin North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific andAfrica, providing treatment to some 130,400 patients. Italso is the leading global provider of dialysis products,including hemodialysis machines, dialyzers and relateddisposable products. ■B RIEFLYN OTEDTLC opens LASIK center in Des MoinesTLC Vision (St. Louis), an eye care services company,reported the opening of a LASIK Select center in DesMoines, Iowa. This is the third of five new centers the companyexpects to open in the first quarter, and 10 LASIKSelect centers total for 2006.To subscribe, please call MEDICAL DEVICE DAILY Customer Service at (800) 688-2421; outside the U.S. and Canada, call (404) 262-5476.Copyright © 2006 Thomson BioWorld ® . Reproduction is strictly prohibited. Visit our web site at www.medicaldevicedaily.com.