Steve West, president of MDS Nordion

Ottawa's MDS Nordion is selling two of its product lines to Virginia-based Best Medical International Inc. for an undisclosed amount, but the jobs of approximately 150 local employees working on the lines appear to be safe.

MDS Nordion, a division of MDS Inc. and provider of medical isotopes and radiopharmaceuticals, said it would sell its external beam therapy and self-contained irradiator product lines to Best Medical as part of its strategy to "focus its resources on being a leading innovator in molecular medicine." The buyer is a maker of radiotherapy and oncology products.

"This sale represents a further focusing of our business at MDS Nordion," said the company's president Steve West in a statement. "By divesting these product lines, we can direct all of our energy and resources on becoming a leading innovator in the exciting and growing field of molecular medicine."

The external beam therapy business is used in the treatment of cancer, while the self-contained irradiators are used to sterilize blood to prevent disease and for research purposes. The two product lines have combined annualized revenues of US$32 million.

Mr. West told the OBJ in an interview that MDS Nordion expects to transfer all of the employees involved in the two product lines to Best Medical, who will take over one of MDS Nordion's three buildings on March Road.

As part of the deal, there will be a severance of the land on which the factory manufacturing the two product lines stands, and the land will become the property of Best Medical.

"There's no reason to think they won't continue working at Best Medical," said Mr. West, noting that Best Medical president Krishnan Suthanthiran had indicated to employees at a company town hall meeting Thursday that "his expectations are that he will increase volumes going through the facility."

Mr. West said Best Medical would be rebranding the two product lines as Best Theratronics. He added that the two companies will continue to have reciprocal business arrangements with regards to cross-supply capabilities.

"These were not strategic product lines going forward and would not have received any significant investment from us," Mr. West said. "But Best Medical has a much stronger product portfolio in this area and I believe those two businesses will actually prosper under Best Medical... they are valuable assets to Krish."

He said the move was part of the repositioning of MDS Nordion's business from its traditional focus as a radiochemicals company to one focused on molecular medicine, and indicated that the company was looking at acquisition opportunities in this area.

"This move signals MDS Nordion's commitment to global life sciences and opportunities in personalized medicine and molecular medicine, which is a high-growth area, an exciting area," he said.

Mr. Suthanthiran, who is a graduate of Carleton University, said Best Medical's plan is to increase the number of units produced by employees working on the two product lines in order to reduce cost per unit.

"We're business with a social agenda, and that agenda is to revolutionize health care and education and make it more accessible and affordable worldwide, and this is the beginning of our goal to launch war on cancer globally," he told the OBJ.

Mr. Suthanthiran said Best Medical will be moving its 14 local staff in Bells Corners to join its 150 new employees at the March Road facility. He also noted that the company would be announcing another acquisition in this vein on Monday.

Both Mr. Suthanthiran and Mr. West declined to provide any financial details on the transaction.

The deal is expected to close within the next three months.