American Hospital Supply Sells McGaw to Kendall

As rumored last week, American Hospital Supply Corp. of Evanston, Ill., has sold its McGaw intravenous solution division in Irvine to the Kendall Co., a health care product division of New York-based Colgate-Palmolive Co. for a reported $200 million.

The sale was required by antitrust regulators reviewing Baxter Travenol Laboratories’ pending $3.8 billion purchase of American Hospital. The Justice Department’s antitrust division had said disposal of the McGaw division would be necessary because it controls an estimated 15% of the market for intravenous solutions while Baxter Travenol, of Deerfield, Ill., controls an estimated 45%.

The sale clears one of the major hurdles facing the combination of the two companies’ operations.