The buy isn’t too surprising if you’ve been paying attention to new HP CEO Meg Whitman’s comments over the past month. In mid-November, Whitman spoke about rebuilding the company’s financial position and acquisitions. She said: “No large acquisitions in 2012. Nothing the size of Autonomy, and maybe more like sub-$500 million.”

HP made the move to acquire major enterprise software player Autonomy for $10.3 billion in August, so the company is still digesting that deal. That acquisition was made under former HP CEO Leo Apotheker, who was ousted and replaced by Whitman.

Hiflex was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Aachen, Germany. The company’s focus is on “web-to-print and management information systems solutions for printing services.” Hiflex also dabbles in cloud computing services that relate to imaging. The company said its users represent all areas of the graphics industry, including “commercial printing, periodicals, newspapers, labels and packaging.”

“HP wants to break the traditional barriers of how and where business customers print, making it easy for them to produce custom or personalized materials anywhere, anytime,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive VP of HP’s Imaging and Printing Group, in a statement. “Hiflex’s technology provides a powerful platform to deliver on this goal as part of our overall cloud printing strategy.”

A promo video for Hiflex can be viewed below:

Diffusion Pharma raises $4.5M for vascular-disease and brain-cancer drug — Charlottesville, Va.-based Diffusion Pharmaceuticals, a biotech focused on drugs that enhance oxygen diffusion, raised $4.5 million in a private placement. Angel investors provided the funding, which brings Diffusion’s take to $10.2 million in equity and $2.6 million in government R&D grants.

Diffusion’s lead drug candidate — trans sodium crocetinate, or TSC — is designed to increase oxygen levels in otherwise oxygen-starved tissues. The drug just completed an early-stage clinical trial for safety, and will move on to mid-stage trials in two conditions: peripheral vascular disease and brain cancer.

Abiant draws $600K for advanced bio-imaging — Chicago’s Abiant, a device company now developing image-processing methods and software to speed the process of drug development, raised $600,000 in a private placement. Heartland Angels, Kettering Medical Center, and other investors provided the funding.

CellXplore raises $500,000 for breast-cancer diagnostics — CellXplore, a New Brunswick, N.J., biotech working on blood proteins that indicate early signs of cancer, raised $500,000 in new funding. Foundation Venture Capital Group provided the cash. The company has identified several “biomarkers” found in blood that it believes may not only identify the disease, but help oncologists assess different types and stages of cancer.

Heart- and eye-device maker WMR Biomedical assembles $13.1M — Cambridge, Mass.-based WMR Biomedical (no Web site, apparently), a developer of medical devices for cardiology and ophthalmology, raised $13.1 million in a second funding round, PE Hub reports, citing a regulatory filing. Investors included Intersouth Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners and Polaris Venture Partners. Although WMR remains largely tight-lipped about its intentions, this page on the Massachusetts Biotechnology Industry Directory site suggests it has a pretty illustrious scientific pedigree, as its founders include Harvard chemist George Whitesides and MIT’s Bob Langer.

Macroflux changes name to Zosano Pharma — There isn’t a whole lot more to say about this, actually, although the company put out a full release about it. Zosano is based in Fremont, Calif., and develops needle-free “transdermal” patches that use drug-coated “microprojections” — each about 200 microns long — to penetrate the outer layer of skin. Since the main difference between a microprojection and a needle seems to be whether the pointy object actually injects a drug or not — something of an academic distinction to anyone on the receiving end, I suspect — it’s not entirely clear to me what sort of advantage this system may have over competing needle-free approaches, such as that of Stratagent, which recently merged with Corium (our coverage in the first item here).

Point Biomedical’s focus is a tiny collapsible particle it calls the biSphere, which it is currently studying in clinical trials to aid in the imaging of blood flow within vessels and tissues. The company’s biSpheres consist of a pair of nested spheres that are designed to collapse when subjected to a pulse of ultrasound. When filled with a gas such as nitrogen, which provides a strong ultrasound “echo,” the spheres can make it possible to image the flow of blood in various organs. Crushed by ultrasound, the spheres release the highly visible nitrogen, which is then swept away and replaced by new spheres. The spheres could also be used to deliver drugs to a specific area.

Point Biomedical is currently studying the spheres in late-stage human trials as a non-invasive way to image blood flow in the heart and an alternative to assays that rely on radioactive particles.

AllianceBernstein and Safeguard Scientifics led the round. Previous investors including Pfizer Strategic Investments Group, the venture arm of Pfizer; Lilly Ventures, the venture arm of Eli Lilly; RK Venture Group; and BioAdvance also joined the round.

Avid’s development efforts are focused on new imaging agents for neurological problems. It recently announced initial positive results for AV-1, its lead compound for imaging the clumps of beta-amyloid protein that are often characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease.

The company’s release on the funding is here.