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Press Release:

Sibaya LifeScience is pleased to announce that Bruno Cocheteux has joined the firm as a managing partner heading up the Operations and R&D practice.

Bruno comes to Sibaya from a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical and medical device multinational where he was a world wide operations leader. In this role Bruno performed a variety of critical functions including building a state of the art prototype plant as part of a $100 million plus project, leading teams of professionals to build integrated pharmaceutical production areas - all the way from early stage product development, process engineering, production and commercialization.

The scope of his projects include team leadership covering Europe, the USA and Asia.

Bruno has also taken a leading role in R&D by actively interfacing with customers and effectively guiding the resultant innovative products all the way through design, production and subsequently onto customer shelves.

Equally at home on the factory floor, drawing office or board room Bruno has already attracted a significant client base.

Bruno is a graduate of Arts & Métiers in Paris and is currently based in Europe.

New Client Services:

Sibaya remains a young company having recently celebrated it’s 6th anniversary. We value tenure and experience however we value the ability to add value to clients in a fast changing world even more. In its short history Sibaya has established a client base in the United States, Europe and Asia with notable clients based in major countries.

The newly formed Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Operations and R&D practice adds significant capability in terms of clients requiring value added services including – turnkey projects, contract engineering, expert operations due diligence, productivity measures and quality programs, sourcing and supply chain effectiveness – to name a few.

Frank Barlin – founder of Sibaya noted that the firm is now able to provide an in depth range of comprehensive services to Lifesciences clients – from strategy and business development, acquisition know how, marketing through operations, engineering, R&D and sourcing.

Identifying opportunities, providing insightful advice, hands on execution

Contact Sibaya - 30 avenue Théophile Gautier, 75016 Paris - +33177136756 – info@sibaya.com

The program officially started today, with all the competing and conflicting flavors of a bitter sweet chocolate. Despite a last minute lobbying effort - and one missing vote, at least 3 failed lawsuits - the program started.

“Industry” is saying that there is still a chance it will be reversed (temporarily) however that’s a long shot.

I used quotes when using the word “industry” because - industry was late to the party in presenting a united front and in the later stages “industry” unraveled somewhat when companies awarded contracts protested about delays to implementing the program, as well as arguments over higher and lower spec products being included (see Scooter Store) etc. The approach was also somewhat un-imaginative with the usual “lots of companies will go out of business, we provide services that cannot be obtained elsewhere etc.. to which the opposition cried the free market ethic, “If you cannot compete you deserve to go out of business”… and so on.

The main issue of course was an industry that did not recognize the seriousness of needing to provide cost savings to one of their biggest customers - namely Medicare.

There is no doubt in my mind that serious companies have been making contingency plans for this eventuality, and it is these that will ultimately win, as they had the vision to succeed - no matter what.

For all others, with all sincerity - go read “Who moved My Cheese“.

(You may be interested in our take on the NYT post a few days ago.

This acquisition comes as no surprise and fits not only with the Permobil value added product line but establishes a larger footprint in the French market - a market so far largely shunned by other large Nordic players like Etac and Handicare. This represents another investment for Nordic Capital, relatively new owner of Permobil.

It also continues the buying spree of the “Homecare Vikings” which we wrote about two years ago and at the beginning of this year when Handicare had just completed two acquisitions within months of each other.

There is no question that “stand up” chairs, both manual and powered, offer higher margins to manufacturers. It is also true that this market segment is maturing with the mainstream large manufacturers having entered the market in the past year or two - better late than never.

Could we be heading back to those heady days in the mid 90’s when now market leaders Invacare and Sunrise went on big buying acquisition drives, or are the Scandinavian homecare vikings being more selective?

Here is what Hans Bergh, CEO at Permobil says:

As part of its international development strategy in the field of specialist medical equipment for the handicapped community, PERMOBIL has just carried out the acquisition of the French company LIFESTAND, situated in Lyon.
LIFESTAND, which was founded in 1978, specialises in the design and manufacture of « stand-up » wheelchairs. These wheelchairs, which can be operated manually, semi-electrically or fully electrically, enable a disable person to stand upright.
The company, which has a staff of 30 people, markets its products worldwide, with 80 % of sales into export markets. It has a subsidiary in both Germany and Belgium.

Annual sales exceeds 8M Euros, with good profitability.
This transaction strengthens PERMOBIL’s position in a key, potentially high growth, market in which it is already present with its powered wheelchairs !

“This acquisition gives a great opportunity to develop even further our position in this field thanks to LIFESTAND’s full gamut of top of the range « stand-up » wheelchairs, which cover all pathologies”, says PERMOBILS CEO Hans Bergh

For LIFESTAND, this merger with such a well-established group will enable it to widen its distribution network, particularly in the United States.

For more information :
www.permobil.com
www.lifestand.eu

It will be interesting to see the integration strategy of this Swedish and French company.

Many people in the healthcare industry do not know the company DCC. What they should know however is that it is a very successful €5 billion business services and distribution company based in Ireland. While a small part of overall revenues, their healthcare business has revenues approaching €300 million making it very significant in the space in which it operates.

The healthcare business boasts year on year revenue growth in excess of 20% and an impressive average annual operating profit of 17% over the last 5 years. Their three business groupings within heathcare are Mobility and Rehab (which operates primarily in Europe and Australia with the Days Healthcare, Physio-Med and Metron brands), Fannin (Ireland’s leading distributor as well as a UK operation) and the Health and Beauty sector(outsourced solutions - largely nutraceuticals).
Jim Flavin CEO - founder and primary driver behind the company, has just announced his resignation over a long ongoing and hotly contested dispute concerning the sale of shares in Fyffes, a company that Jim Flavin was a board member of way back in 2000.

DCC has appointed Tommy Breen Chief executive and Michael Buckley, non-executive Chairman with immediate effect.

There is considerable speculation as to what their future strategy will be. As recent as May 19, Flavin had announced in the preliminary year end results that

As previously announced, an important part of my responsibilities as Executive Chairman is to lead a reappraisal of our overall strategic direction so that DCC is best positioned for sustainable long-term growth. This process is ongoing and I plan to put recommendations before the Board by the end of the current financial year.

There is much speculation in the investment community about what this means including an estimate that breaking up the businesses could yield in excess of a billion euros for shareholders.

Both events are conveniently located in Paris this year.

May 27 - 30, 2008

Hopitalexpo-Intermedica is a combined meeting of the FFH (French Hospital Federation) which represents 2000 major hospitals in France and Intermedica which is composed of the major national trade organizations.

June 11 - 13, 2008

Autonomic is a trade and consumer meeting which focuses more on the growing homecare sector.

Contact Frank Barlin at Sibaya Healthcare.

Guest blogger Arnon Krongrad, MD

What do these people have in common: 1) a 39-y old stay-at-home mom in Florida, 2) a web master in Melbourne Australia, 3) a gay Broadway producer, 4) the Clinical Director of Psycho-Oncology at the Winship Cancer Center at Emory University, and 5) a dentist in Ottawa? They are all new members of the New Prostate Cancer InfoLink social network.

Prostate cancer is a global problem with no apparent global solution. It is also a chronic and multi-faceted clinical challenge. Be it matters of early detection or treatment selection or management of clinical complications and loss of partner intimacy, there is more to consider than any one doctor or specialist can. Moreover, with the numbing quantity of online information, there is more than any single site can efficiently deliver. Patients drown in useless information while seeking the bit that relates to them.

To address what we perceived a poorly constructed online delivery, we recently resurrected what in 1995 was launched as the world’s first prostate cancer web site, the Prostate Cancer InfoLink. We kept its best parts, including the simple articles and interactive “Ask Arthur,” and launched the new version with modern tools: blog, syndication, and social network.

The New Prostate Cancer InfoLink sites bring friendly interactive mechanisms for helping the individual man and his partners and friends. For example, the “Ask Arthur” has been expanded to be Ask Arthur, Ask Amy, and Ask Arnon, which represents 50 man-years of prostate cancer experience. The social network has uniquely brought together urologists, radiation oncologists, psychiatrists, writers and more. Discussion has been thoughtful and in many cases supremely well informed.

We’re new in existence and new in concept. Please have a look. And if you run a web site or blog, please post links to:

http://prostatecancerinfolink.net articles, blog, and online support

http://prostatecancerinfolink.ning.com social network

# # #

Guest blogger Arnon Krongrad, MD, is Founder and Medical Director of the Krongrad Institute for Minimally Invasive Prostate Cancer Surgery and co-Founder of the New Prostate Cancer InfoLink.

Brian Sterner is thrown from his wheelchair by police in the state of Florida, United States.

UPDATE: February 16, 2008:

Hillsborough County Deputy Charlette Marshall-Jones, 44, turned herself in and was booked into the Orient Road Jail early Saturday, jail records show.

Reuters and more at CNN.