BOZEN, Italy, November 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Health Robotics today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with Devon International Group (DIG) and its strategic partner ITOCHU International, Inc., whereby DIG and ITOCHU have acquired the exclusive rights to manufacture, market, sub-license, implement, interface, and support Health Robotics’ robots in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean Islands. CytoCare(TM) is the world’s first and only automated robotic system for the safe preparation of hazardous, patient-specific chemotherapy medications. Originally developed for Oncology Pharmacy, CytoCare(TM) can now also produce Monoclonal Antibodies Therapy IV Admixtures to treat patients with Crohn’s disease, Organ Transplants, Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Infectious Diseases.
DIG and ITOCHU, a Global Fortune 500 company, will invest $60 million in Health Robotics’ products and will immediately take over Health Robotics’ existing North American customers and employees. In addition, DIG has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a 13.33% equity stake in Health Robotics, whereby DIG’s President and CEO Dr. John A. Bennett will join the board of Health Robotics in December 2008. DIG also acquired exclusive rights to Health Robotics’ i.v.Station(TM)pending, an automated robotic solution for non-hazardous IV Admixtures to be demonstrated at the upcoming ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting at Exhibition, December 7-11 in Orlando. Florida. A new subsidiary, Devon Robotics, will soon be announced by DIG with the purpose to house Health Robotics’ U.S. operations. DIG will also execute sales activities with MedSurg Specialty Devices, a subsidiary of ITOCHU, and will seek strategic healthcare partnerships with other key North American companies to optimize the manufacturing, marketing, delivery, implementation, and support of Health Robotics’ products throughout North America.
“In the critical area of cancer care, medication errors can mean the difference between life and death. CytoCare(TM)'s state-of-the-art robotics technology eliminates human handling of chemotherapy and other hazardous drugs during preparation, greatly improves accuracy, and reduces potentially fatal medication errors, and has changed the ways pharmacists and hospitals administer cancer therapies,” says John A. Bennett, president of Devon International Group. “Increased safety for patients and clinicians, higher accuracy of IV Admixtures, reduced waste, and improved efficiency of hospitals’ pharmacy workflow are among the key benefits of both CytoCare(TM) and i.v.Station(TM)pending. We are proud to become strategic partners with such an innovative, forward-thinking company and indeed share Health Robotics’ vision to utilize robotics technology to improve patient care. We look forward to working with hospitals, cancer centers, and their pharmacy staffs to make CytoCare and i.v.Station(TM)pending the gold standards for IV Admixture automation in North America.”
“We have developed and deployed the only totally automated system for safe handling and preparation of hazardous IV admixtures in the world, and are extremely proud to be making a significant advancement in patient safety and clinician safety in Europe,” says Werner Rainer, CEO of Health Robotics. “We are ecstatic that Devon International Group will be our largest strategic partner to date and the first partner to ever acquire an equity stake in the company, as their expertise in healthcare, information technology, and the global business environment will help us connect with hospitals and oncology centers. The addition to Dr. Bennett to our Board of Directors will greatly enhance our understanding of customers’ needs in North America and Asia.”
About Devon International Group
The Devon International Group (DIG) is a multi-national group of companies spanning the healthcare, information technology, and international business industries. Its flagship companies includes Devon Health Services, Inc., a national healthcare cost management company and the largest privately held Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) in the Northeast, and Devon IT, Inc., the world’s third largest manufacturer of thin clients. DIG’s goal is to provide, through its companies, products and services that are unique, innovative and affordable. Its companies operate across the world and span the healthcare, information technology, manufacturing, and international trading industries. DIG embraces an entrepreneurial spirit that encourages employee creativity to fuel the advancement of each company’s products and services and takes advantage of emerging business opportunities that a “flat world” economy presents. DIG’s headquarters are in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and the Group has offices in Ireland, London, Lithuania, Bangalore, India, Shanghai, and Beijing.
About Health Robotics:
Health Robotics is the global leading supplier in the automation of life-critical intra-venous patient-specific medication preparation, compounding, and dispensing, providing health care facilities around the world with robotics and software automation solutions. The world-leading solutions CytoCare(TM) and i.v.Station(TM)pending have and will greatly contribute to ease global pharmacies’ growing pressures to improve patient safety through the effective and efficient production of sterile, accurate, and ready-to-administer IVs, to decrease life-threatening medication errors and contamination risks, and to work more efficiently, increase throughput, reduce waste, and contain spiralling costs.
About ITOCHU International Inc.
Since 1858, ITOCHU has evolved and grown over 150 years into a “sogo shosha”, engaging in domestic trading, import/export, and overseas trading of various products such as textiles, machinery, information and communications-related products, metals, oil and energy sources, general merchandise, chemicals, health-care and food. In addition, ITOCHU has made multifaceted investments in insurance agencies, finance, construction, real-estate trading, and warehousing. Under the former mid-term management plan “Frontier-2006,” ITOCHU reached its objective of “becoming a Highly Profitable Corporate Group achieving over Yen100 billion in consolidated net income in a steady and sustainable manner and with over 4,000 employees in 17 domestic and 139 overseas locations.”
CONTACT: For additional information, please contact: Health Robotics,
Gaspar G. DeViedma, in Europe: +39-346-963-4934, in America:
+1-609-980-7976, gaspar.deviedma@health-robotics.com; Devon International
Group, Darren Behuniak, in America: +1-484-744-3937,
dbehuniak@devonhealth.com
