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Danaher Gets Benefits From Beckman Acquisition, Cost Cuts

Danaher Corp., the Washington, D.C., conglomerate that bought medical-technology company Beckman Coulter Inc. of Brea for almost $6 billion last year, is getting a boost from that deal.

Danaher recently posted a 20% increase in fourth-quarter profit amid a revenue surge fueled by sales at Beckman.

Danaher’s life-sciences and diagnostics unit, which includes Beckman, posted a 153% increase in quarterly sales from a year ago, to $1.73 billion.

Danaher’s operating profit from its life sciences business more than doubled to $225.3 million from $89.6 million.

The company’s fix-up plan for Beckman called for a cut of some 1,000 jobs—representing 8% of its work force—as part of efforts to trim $250 million in annual expenses.

“We’ve removed a lot of costs from Beckman Coulter,” Danaher Chief Executive Lawrence Culp told analysts in an earnings conference call. “The changes are having a significant impact on how the business is run on a daily basis.”

Danaher is facing some work as it transforms Beckman, which makes medical-testing equipment and supplies. Beckman has been hit with several product recalls and was cited by the Food and Drug Administration for inadequate quality controls at a plant.

Culp said that Danaher is “encouraged by the early results” to address Beckman’s quality-control issues.

He said there’s been “a significant talent infusion from both Danaher and the industry” to complement Beckman’s team.

Pegasus Buy

Baxter International Inc., a diversified Chicago drug and medical device maker with 330 workers in Orange County, is expanding its regenerative medicine division through an acquisition that has a local connection.

Baxter said this month it would spend $260 million to buy Synovis Life Technologies Inc., a St. Paul, Minn.-based maker of tissue products for bariatric, hernia and breast reconstruction surgeries. Synovis spent $12.1 million to buy assets of the now-defunct Pegasus Biologics Inc., an Irvine-based company that made tissue implants.

A report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune said that Synovis won a competitive sealed bidding process for Pegasus’ assets. Pegasus launched in 2003 and had raised more than $38 million in venture capital and debt before shutting operations in 2009 after it was unable to raise more money.

Quality Deals

A subsidiary of Irvine-based healthcare software maker Quality Systems Inc. has signed a deal with one of the biggest U.S. managed-care companies.

Quality’s NextGen Healthcare Information Systems Inc. will work with Louisville, Ky.-based Humana Inc. to accelerate the adoption of electronic health records.

Humana gives financial assistance to select doctors for buying NextGen’s Ambulatory electronic health records system and rewards them for improved clinical performance.

Doctors can use NextGen Ambulatory software to exchange patient health information Humana, and receive information on payments. The data is then placed in the patient’s health record, where it can be tracked by healthcare providers.

Quality said in a release that it was one of the “first steps toward eliminating duplicate and unnecessary tests.”

Excessive testing is often cited as a culprit in rising healthcare costs.

Separately, Quality said that its QSIDental dental software unit signed a reseller agreement with San Jose-based Suni Medical Imaging Inc.

Quality said that dental practices and others can integrate Suni’s sensors, panoramic, cephalometic and 3-D imaging products with QSIDental’s software, including the NextGen electronic dental record.

Bits and Pieces

Masimo Corp. of Irvine has introduced a program to help hospitals reduce blood transfusion costs. The company has guaranteed that when a hospital replaces its standard adhesive sensors with Masimo’s Rainbow disposable sensors “the incremental price paid for the sensors will be exceeded by a reduction in blood transfusion related costs.” … Irvine dental laser maker Biolase Technology Inc. signed a sales and marketing deal with Kirkland, Wash.-based Seattle Study Club, a dental-education organization. … Daniel Amen, a doctor, researcher and owner of the Amen Clinics in Newport Beach, recently published the book Use Your Brain to Change Your Age.

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