These investments have added more than 300,000 square feet of new space that will facilitate future growth. As part of our expansion, we created a new pilot production clean room for R&D and hired additional R&D staff to support new product launches.
In the year 2005 and early 2006, Merit introduced several new products, including the Prelude™ sheath introducer, the Viceroy™ inflation device, the BackStop® Plus safety device, the Impress™ radiology catheter, the Revolution™ fixation device, the Honor™ hemostasis valve, the Merit S-MAK™ mini access kit, the MultiPack Plus™ cardiology catheter kit, the ShortStop Advantage™ safety product and the TriplePlay™ disposal basin. We also introduced the Merit PAL™ labeling system, the SecureLoc™ safety introducer
 
In 2005 Merit also secured 220 new accounts for our custom procedure tray business in Richmond, which came from the acquisition of MedSource in November 2004. Although this business has negatively impacted our gross margins so far, we believe it is an important part of our ‘stick to stitch’ strategy and that margins will improve as volumes and efficiencies increase.
In December 2005 Merit acquired the capital stock of MCTec Holding, B.V., a Dutch corporation located in Venlo, The Netherlands, from Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for approximately $3 million cash. MCTec’s revenues for 2005 were approximately $3.5 million. This acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to our shareholders. MCTec is primarily involved in the coating of
 
    needle, the H2O Torq™ guide wire torque device and the MiniStop™ Plus safety device. Subsequent adjustments to these products for customer preferences, inventories and capacities will be ongoing.   wires and tubings for various medical device companies and will enhance the competitive position of Merit’s existing guide wire products and anticipated future offerings.