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Beckman Coulter Parent Bids for J&J Diagnostics

Brea-based diagnostic testing machine and supply maker Beckman Coulter Inc. could get some company within parent Danaher Corp.’s life sciences and diagnostics unit.

Johnson & Johnson, the New Brunswick, N.J.-based medical behemoth, is looking to sell its Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics unit in Raritan, N.J., in a deal that could be worth up to $5 billion.

Danaher, a Washington, D.C.-based conglomerate best known as the maker of Craftsman tools sold at Sears stores, paid $6.8 billion in 2011 to buy Beckman, a bellwether of OC’s medical technology scene.

Danaher and Stamford, Conn.-based General Electric Co. may be among the bidders for Ortho-Clinical, according to Reuters.

Other potential bidders include a pair of companies with an OC presence: Abbott Laboratories, owner of Santa Ana-based Abbott Medical Optics, and Chicago-based Baxter International Inc., which employs 325 people in Irvine.

Danaher didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.

Ortho-Clinical operates clinical laboratories and provides other diagnostic services. The unit has estimated revenue of $2 billion.

An article in the online newsletter M2Pharma indicated Ortho-Clinical’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization amounted to $400 million to $500 million.

Danaher doesn’t specifically break out Beckman’s revenue. It’s part of the conglomerate’s life sciences and diagnostics unit, which accounted for $3.2 billion in sales through June 30.

Danaher will release its earnings for the current quarter on Oct. 17.

Johnson & Johnson said in January that it would “explore strategic alternatives” for Ortho-Clinical and indicated the process could take 12 months to 24 months.

New York-based JPMorgan Chase is working with the company on the matter.

The sale could bring more to Johnson & Johnson than might seem realistic on its face.

“All things considered, investors may end up surprised with how much J&J ultimately gets for [Ortho-Clinical],” Motley Fool investor website contributor Stephen Simpson wrote in a recent article.

Simpson said that while Ortho-Clinical’s presence in the overall global diagnostics market is small and that sales have been declining due in part to a lack of reinvestment, past diagnostic deals, including Danaher’s buy of Beckman, “suggest that a $5 billion price tag may be a pretty realistic estimate at this point.”

Danaher had some $8 billion in cash and equivalents on its books as of June 30 and has been mentioned as a potential buyer of other types of businesses besides clinical diagnostics.

The conglomerate also owns the KaVo Kerr Group, a maker of various dental products that’s based in Orange and was previously known as Sybron Dental Specialties Inc.

ICU Medical Device OK’d

San Clemente-based device maker ICU Medical Inc. said the Food and Drug Administration cleared its ChemoLock needle-free medical device this month.

It’s now approved for administering drugs to patients, as well as for pharmacy workers’ use.

ICU designed ChemoLock “as an intuitive needlefree system to keep pharmacy and nursing staffs and their patients safe from exposure to hazardous drugs,” Dr. George Lopez, ICU’s founder and chief executive, said in a news release.

ChemoLock is in limited market release and in clinical use in U.S. and European hospitals. The company said it will formally introduce it this year and feature it at the American Association of Hospital Pharmacists’ midyear meeting in Orlando, Fla.

ICU also said a pair of clinical studies showed its ChemoClave devices improve patient and clinician safety by reducing exposure to hazardous drugs and eliminating accidental needle sticks.

The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, were the study sites.

Medi-Cal Money On Its Way

Hospitals in Orange County and other parts of California are set to get more than $10 billion in new Medicaid funding as part of a deal reached this month between Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration, California Legislature leaders and the California Hospital Association.

The law creates a Medi-Cal hospital fee program that its backers, including the Sacramento-based trade group, said would strengthen hospitals’ ability to respond to increased demands stemming from federal healthcare reform.

Medi-Cal is a state- and federally funded healthcare program for poor and disabled Californians.

Hospitals will get the federal money in the form of supplemental Medi-Cal payments.

Orange County is one of only three California counties that don’t have their own public hospital, the type of facility many Medi-Cal patients traditionally go to.

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