In Brief: MiniMed/Boehringer Mannheim

MiniMed/Boehringer Mannheim: Firms enter co-marketing agreement, effective June 1, under which the firms' sales and marketing forces will cooperate in promoting their diabetes care products in the U.S. The firms will create a joint sales and marketing "council" to develop "promotional materials and sales strategies" for U.S. operations, MiniMed says. The deal brings together Boehringer, the largest producer of glucose meters and test strips worldwide and the second largest producer of in vitro diagnostics, and MiniMed, which markets lines of external infusion systems for diabetes management in the U.S. and sells implantable infusion devices overseas. MiniMed also plans to commence multicenter clinical trials of a minimally-invasive subcutaneous glucose monitor in late 1996...