Luminetx Corp. has signed a three-year supplier contract with Las Vegas-based MedAssets Supply Chain Systems, one of the nation’s largest group purchasing organizations for health care providers. MedAssets bills itself as a “margin and cash flow improvement company providing innovative solutions for health care providers.”

The deal allows MedAssets’ hospital customers to get group purchasing discounts on Luminetx’s VeinViewer system, which typically sells for $25,000 per unit.

Veinviewer is designed to help health care professionals find patients’ veins

using infrared technology. An image of a patient’s veins is projected in real time onto the skin, making injections, IV insertions and other medical procedures quicker and easier.

Luminetx officials were unavailable Tuesday.

The MedAssets deal follows Luminetx’s announcement in early May that Veinviewer sales had increased 250 percent in the first quarter over 2007’s Q1 sales.

Prior to that announcement, the company also began shipping its first VeinViewerGS or “Global Standard” units overseas, officially marking Luminetx’s entry into the international marketplace.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the VeinViewer product as a Class I Exempt Medical Device in fall 2006. In December 2007, Luminetx received certifications allowing VeinViewer to be distributed overseas, according to previous Daily News reports.

MedAssets serves more than 125 health systems, 3,300 hospitals and 30,000 non-acute care providers.

For more information about either company, visit www.luminetx.com or www.medassets.com.