New health management giant
Inverness Medical Innovations announced the acquisition of Matria Healthcare this week, in a deal for $900 million. That caps an acquisition spree that gives Inverness a leading position in the growing area of health management.
Inverness, founded in 2001, is a US firm best known for pregnancy tests, both professional and over-the-counter under the Clearblue name. The company also sells fertility monitors and other Ob/Gyn devices. It also sells a variety of vitamins and nutritional supplements. Finally, it makes a variety of general diagnostic test kits ranging from Lyme disease to HIV and from mononucleosis to cancer. It has grown rapidly through acquisition.
Matria specializes in home services for managing diseases and conditions, including cancer and high-risk pregnancies,
In 2007 Inverness bought:
- Alere Medical, which sells health management services helping patients with chronic illnesses, using nurse care, health education, and at-home monitoring. The deal was for $300 million.
- ParadigmHealth, which also specializes in disease management services for "acutely ill and clinically complex patients, including neonatal intensive care and oncology patients." According to the press release, the deal was for around $230 million.
- Biosite, a maker of diagnostic equipment, including tests for drug use, heart disease, an infectious diseases for patients on chemotherapy. (Inverness outbid rival Beckman Coulter just as that company seemed slated to buy Biosite.
- Cholestech, a company making testing equipment for cholesterol, lipids, blood pressure, and glycemic levels for $325 million.
- HemoSense, a company that has devices for monitoring blood thinning levels (coagulation monitoring)
- Quality Assured Services (QAS), a make r of diagnostic home tests and
services, especially for blood coagulation.
It's clear that Inverness is trying to build a company that insurance companies can hire to provide chronic home care, minimizing the costs of long hospital stays and frequent emergency room visits. With an aging population and soaring direct treatment costs, that's a growing business. It can also supply many of the tools for home monitoring in addition to managing their use.
At the same time, the consolidation of the diagnostic device industry continues at a rapid pace,with Inverness being one of the leaders. As we've stated before, these moves are all part of a larger set of roll-up in the healthcare industry, in areas ranging form insurance to drugs, and from medical imaging to prosthetics.
6:35:10 PM 
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