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Specialized Testing Seen Growing Beckman’s Market

Medical diagnostics, a market that includes Fullerton-based Beckman Coulter Inc., should enjoy steady growth in the next five years, according to a research report.

What BCC Research Inc. calls the “medical diagnostic kit” market was worth $11.7 billion in 2007, according to the Wellesley, Mass.-based market researcher.

It is expected to be worth $18.5 billion by 2013, a compound annual growth rate of 8.5%.

BCC uses a wide definition of medical diagnostic kits that includes four categories: clinical laboratory testing; home-use diagnostics, research and veterinary testing.

Beckman’s instruments and supplies are used in hospitals and clinical laboratories running tests for doctors, as well as by researchers at drug companies and universities.

The report mentions an area that Beckman’s targeting,molecular diagnostics, a form of advanced genetic testing to identify a disease or a predisposition for a disease.

“While the research market has remained fairly stable during the past six years, the field of molecular diagnostics has rapidly expanded,” BCC said.

Research into genetic disease and cancers, BCC said, is giving molecular diagnostics momentum.

Beckman is working on a machine that would take genetic analysis out of pricey scientist-led labs and put it into general clinical labs.

There’s been talk that Congress might consider extending Medicare funding to cover some genetic testing. Even without federal funding, a molecular diagnostics machine could bring more business for Beckman, the last stand-alone company in its sector.

Beckman Chief Executive Scott Garrett has said he does not expect molecular diagnostic testing to overtake its core immunoassay test machines, which use chemicals to test for a concentration of a substance in urine or blood. Those are the routine tests done by labs, hospitals and other healthcare providers.

Still, molecular testing could catapult Beckman to “a whole new level,” Garrett said.


Hospital Buy

The healthcare arm of Santa Ana-based real estate investor Grubb & Ellis Co. bought a medical building in Amarillo, Texas, for undisclosed terms.

The building is part of a long-term acute care hospital run by Triumph HealthCare of Houston. It’s made up of a two-story building with some 65,000 square feet of leasable space.

Triumph, which has 20 locations around the country, serves patients for whom traditional short-term acute-care hospitals are no longer appropriate or cost-effective.

Grubb & Ellis owns two Triumph-run hospitals in Houston and nearby Sugar Land.


Apria Adds Wound Therapy

Apria Healthcare Group Inc. of Lake Forest said late last month it will provide negative pressure wound therapy services and products to London-based Smith & Nephew PLC for the U.S. home healthcare market.

Negative pressure therapy is used to treat diabetic ulcers and pressure ulcers, as well as post-operative and hard-to-heal wounds.

Working with Smith & Nephew to distribute the wound care “is a natural strategic expansion service line for Apria,” Chief Executive Lawrence Higby said.


SenoRx Wins Court Case

SenoRx Inc., an Aliso Viejo breast cancer diagnosis and treatment device maker, said a federal judge has dismissed unfair competition and false advertising claims from a lawsuit filed against it.

SenoRx was sued in January by Cytyc Corp., a unit of Massachusetts-based Hologix Inc., for alleged patent infringement of a catheter used to deliver targeted radiation to a tumor.

The court ordered a trial of the patent issues to start July 14.


Bits and Pieces:

James Mazzo, chief executive of Santa Ana’s Advanced Medical Optics Inc., is hitting the investor conference circuit. Mazzo appeared at a FTN Midwest Research conference last week and will appear at Goldman Sachs & Co.’s global healthcare conference this week in Laguna Niguel USGI Medical Inc., a San Clemente device maker, said it licensed its incisionless surgery technology to Intuitive Surgical Inc. of Sunnyvale. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Intuitive plans to use USGI’s technology in medical robotics applications Pacifica Laser Therapy Center opened a location in Dana Point. The center features a type of therapy called “photo medicine” that is used to treat ailments like rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia and carpal tunnel syndrome St. Joseph Hospital-Orange said it was conducting a clinical trial for a vaccine that could prevent a recurrence of lung cancer The Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California, Irvine, recently opened a clinic in Newport Beach. Family practice medicine is among the services being offered.

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