Instrumentarium ships to China

Medko Medical, the project sales unit of Instrumentarium, has cut a deal to provide medical equipment to the health bureaus of three Chinese provinces. Equipment deliveries to 13 municipal hospitals operating under China's local health bureaus will begin in early fall. The projects, valued at about $7.4 million, will include x-ray as well as anesthesia equipment and monitors and infant-care products. Meanwhile, Instrumentarium's status as an independent OEM continues to hang in the balance, as European regulators sift through issues involved with GE's bid to purchase the Finnish company. Earlier this month, the European Commission issued preliminary findings on the proposed acquisition, reflecting current discussions in a document entitled the "Statement of Objections." The Wall Street Journal reported that regulators have narrowed their scrutiny of the purchase to the issue of how much power the combined entities would have over patient-monitoring devices. Industry pundits are now speculating that GE may need to make some concessions to win approval of the deal, including divestment of some parts of Instrumentarium, according to the WSJ.