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Linde AG agreed to buy respiratory health-care specialist American HomePatient Inc. to expand a medical-gas business in the U.S. that’s under pressure from government budget cuts. American HomePatient, based in Brentwood, Tennessee, had sales of $280 million in the last fiscal year, Munich-based Linde said Monday in a statement. Linde is expanding the operation to benefit from an aging population even though the company said this month that cuts in Medicare, the government program that provides health services to the elderly, will hurt earnings in the next few years. (Matthews, 12/7)

SAP SE Chief Executive Bill McDermott is back traveling and attending meetings after finding out in September he’d lose an eye following a severe household accident in July. Based on his recovery experience, the CEO is moving the German business software company deeper into programs that can improve communications and information sharing for doctors. SAP on Tuesday announced Foundation for Health, a new product that lets doctors and researchers collect and analyze medical data such as research, electronic health records and human genome sequences in a single system. The idea is to let doctors and researchers customize new drugs and treatments for individuals as well as groups. (Ricadela and Matthews, 12/8)