In business-related transplant news in early February, an online pharmacy said it would shift its focus to transplant and other specialty drugs, and two ventricular assist device companies merged.
* The online pharmacy PlanetRx.com said that it will discontinue the sale of health and beauty products as of March 12 and will acquire an existing specialty pharmacy business, which it did not name. The new company is expected to sell drugs to treat organ transplant recipients, cancer, and HIV. PlanetRx.com, one of the first Internet retailers, is referring its existing customers to a formal rival, the online pharmacy Drugstore.com.
* Ventricular assist device makers Thoratec Laboratories of Pleasanton, California, and Thermo Cardiosystems of Woburn, Massachusetts, completed their merger on February 14, a day after the companies’ shareholders approved the merger. With the merger, Thoratec Laboratories changed its name to Thoratec Corporation. According to Thoratec, the combined company is expected to have more than 350 hospitals as customers and have revenues from $130 million to $140 million for fiscal year 2001. In January, another company, Abiomed, Inc., of Danvers, Massachusetts, made an offer to acquire Thermo Cardiosystems. (See Transplant News Network for January 15, 2001: "VAD News: Mergers, a Milestone, and a Clinical Trial," and for November 15, 2000, "Thoratec, Thermo Cardiosystems Plan Merger.")
For Your Information:
The website for PlanetRx.com is www.planetrx.com.
See Thoratec’s website at www.thoratec.com, and click on various statements at http://www.thoratec.com/invest/fr_press.htm.
Please be aware that medical advice, diagnoses and physician references cannot be obtained from this site.