DrBicuspid.com Business & Industry Insider

Dear Business & Industry Insider,

Dentists who use chloral hydrate oral solution to sedate pediatric patients will have to find another means of getting them to cooperate: Pharmaceutical Associates, the only manufacturer of the palatable, oral solution version of the drug, no longer makes it. Click here to read what led to the company's decision.

On the mergers and acquisitions front, Swiss dental implant maker Straumann is taking a 49% stake in Neodent for $277 million in an attempt to expand its presence in Brazil's booming cosmetic surgery market. Read more.

In related news, Demandforce, a provider of patient communication software and services for dental and other industries, has been taken over by Intuit, a provider of business and financial management products for small and medium-sized businesses and consumers, for $424 million.

And Heraeus Dental has acquired Biomain, a Swedish provider of customized CAD/CAM implants.

Meanwhile, in legal news:

• The American Academy of Implant Dentistry (AAID) is suing the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners to overturn regulations that restrict dentists in Texas from advertising AAID credentials in implant dentistry.
• DMG America won an injunction against gray-market distributors after successfully suing Omni Dental Supply and Rosemond Dental Supply for patent infringement of its Luxatemp products.
• Sirona Dental Systems has won a patent-infringement lawsuit against Vatech over Vatech's automatic layer selection algorithm technology.
• 3M has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Germany against Ivoclar Vivadent regarding its nonshaded zirconia CAD/CAM blocks and coloring liquids, sold Ivoclar's IPS e.max ZirCAD brand. Earlier this month, a federal judge denied a motion by Ivoclar Vivadent to dismiss the litigation.
• CAO Group is suing Biolase Technology, alleging patent infringement involving Biolase's ezlase diode laser.
• And Biolase has filed a lawsuit in Germany asserting that one of its European competitors is infringing on a Biolase patent relating to the output of optical energy of lasers.

Finally, the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus has recommended that Colgate-Palmolive modify or discontinue certain advertising claims for the company's Sensitive Pro-Relief Toothpaste, including that the product works faster than Sensodyne.