Beckman Coulter Inc. has struck a deal with a competitor to develop a medical diagnostic test.
Earlier this month, Beckman said it got intellectual property rights for hepatitis C virus testing from rival Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, part of Germany’s Siemens AG.
Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Beckman said in a statement it expects to take a $12 million charge in the current quarter from the deal.
Fullerton-based Beckman makes medical testing instruments and supplies. Customers include hospitals, clinical laboratories running tests for doctors and academic research centers.
Beckman is using the IP rights to develop a blood test for the virus through a molecular diagnostic testing system now under development. The test would measure the amount of hepatitis C in a patient’s body.
Beckman expects to begin selling the testing system in 2010.
In a release, Beckman said 3 million to 4 million people become infected with hepatitis C yearly. The company also said testing was “essential” for managing patients with the disease and is used to monitor treatment.
“Our access to this intellectual property will expand the served market for our ‘sample-to-result’ molecular diagnostics system,” Chief Executive Scott Garrett said in a release.
Some on Wall Street like it.
“We view this as very strategic for (Beckman’s) future (molecular diagnostics) test menu and a differentiating feature to its platform,” said Jeffrey Frelick of Lazard Capital Markets.
Frelick also examined Beckman’s first-quarter performance.
The company recently reported sales and profits prior to charges that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations.
“We would be buyers of Beckman Coulter, as the diagnostic business again exceeded expectations,” he said.
Beckman earned $42.6 million before charges in the March quarter, above analysts’ expectations of $42 million. Sales were up 19% to $730.5 million, beating Wall Street’s projected $669.4 million.
There’s “no slowdown in hospital spending, as (Beckman) experienced strength across all businesses,” Frelick said in his report.
Some investors had fretted over whether Beckman’s hospital customers would continue spending on equipment.
The analyst called Beckman’s immunoassay business, which uses chemicals to test for a concentration of a substance in urine or blood, “most impressive.”
Sales of immunoassays were up 22% in the most recent quarter, while cellular diagnostic products grew 19% and chemistry and clinical lab automation each were up more than 17%.
Another attraction is Beckman’s stability, according to Frelick.
The company’s quarterly recurring revenue was $575 million, nearly 80% of the total, he said.
A potential risk: “Price wars are a concern as competitors look to regain lost share,” Frelick said.
Beckman’s rivals include companies such as Abbott Laboratories Inc. and Switzerland’s Roche AG and Siemens, which has bought three Beckman competitors this decade, including Dade Behring Holdings Inc. Garrett once ran Dade.
CoreValve Names Executives
CoreValve Inc. has a new chief executive.
The Irvine-based developer of less-invasive heart valves named Daniel Lemaitre as its head. Lemaitre succeeds Jacques S & #233;guin, CoreValve’s cofounder. S & #233;guin remains chairman.
Lemaitre comes to CoreValve from Medtronic Inc., where he was in charge of the company’s corporate strategic planning and corporate development functions since 2006. Lemaitre also spent 28 years as a chartered financial analyst focused on the healthcare industry.
The company also named Vito Canuso III as its vice president of intellectual property. Canuso previously was with Irvine’s Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear LLP, where he’d been a partner since 1995.
CoreValve, which started in France and later moved to Orange County, is working on the ReValving system, which can be performed on a patient’s beating heart. The self-expanding tissue heart valve is delivered by a catheter.
Bits and Pieces:
Masimo Corp., an Irvine-based medical device maker, and Irvine-based Edwards Lifesciences Corp.’s PediaSat Oximetry Catheter were among the winners of the AeA Orange County/Inland Empire Council’s 2008 High Tech Innovation awards. AeA, a trade group, also honored Anita Bessler, who in a few months is moving into a new role at Edwards In other Edwards news, Chief Executive Michael Mussallem spoke late last month at the Global Healthcare Unplugged conference in Miami put on by Morgan Stanley Richard Carmona, who served as the U.S. surgeon general from 2002 to 2006, recently spoke at the Institute for Health Advancement’s annual health literacy conference in Irvine.
