Prime Medical Services to acquire, merge with Medstone International

Prime Medical Services Inc. is offering Medstone International Inc. stockholders $5 a share to become part of the Austin, Texas-based designer and manufacturer of specialty vehicles for the healthcare industry.

 The number of Prime shares for Medstone stockholders will be determined based on the average closing price of Prime common stock some 30 trading days before the closing of the transaction. Prime stock has traded in the range of $4.85 per share this week. The company has a 52-week range of $3.80 to $9.54 per share.

 The Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Medstone manufactures lithotripsy systems and urology tables and provides fee-per-procedure lithotripsy services. Medstone would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Prime.

 Medstone's was the first FDA-cleared device to treat both kidney stones and gallstones. With more than 130 shockwave lithotripters in operation worldwide, and more than 325 urology and patient handling tables in use, the Medstone devices are well established in the urology office and hospital market.

 Medstone notched revenues of $23 million in 2002. The total includes $17 million in service revenue and $6 million in equipment sales.

Around the web

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.

The newly cleared offering, AutoChamber, was designed with opportunistic screening in mind. It can evaluate many different kinds of CT images, including those originally gathered to screen patients for lung cancer. 

Trimed Popup
Trimed Popup