Acquisitions In Brief
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Inverness buys distributor of drugs-of-abuse tests: Diagnostics firm Inverness Medical Innovations acquires rapid drugs-of-abuse test distributor Redwood Toxicology Laboratory for $99 million. Announced Dec. 20, the cash deal includes a toxicology lab for conducting confirmatory testing services. Privately held Redwood, which is based in Santa Rosa, Calif., has annual sales of $44 million and is profitable. It is the largest single distributor of Inverness' drugs-of-abuse tests, Inverness says. In addition, Inverness' Innovacon subsidiary already makes "virtually all" of the products sold by Redwood, according to Inverness. Inverness acquired home drugs-of-abuse test firm First Check Diagnostics for $25 million last February and in March also acquired 75% of the rapid drugs-of-abuse test distributor Instant Technologies for $43.7 million. Other recent Inverness deals include its $170 million purchase of lateral flow test maker BBI Holdings (1"The Gray Sheet" Dec. 17, 2007, In Brief)
You may also be interested in...
New Products In Brief
Asante’s Pearl insulin pump
New Products In Brief
Asante’s Pearl insulin pump
Inverness strikes again
Rapid point-of-care diagnostic test maker Inverness Medical Innovations acquires British non-invasive lateral flow test maker BBI Holdings in a deal valuing BBI at up to $170 million, announced Dec. 11. Inverness already owns about 12% of BBI and will acquire each of the remaining 37.7 million BBI shares for $3.95 worth of Inverness stock or $3.75 in cash, contingent upon BBI shareholder approval. Waltham, Mass.-based Inverness, which recently raised about $800 million from a stock sale to help support an ongoing acquisition spree, notes that among BBI's key assets are its "capabilities in developing novel lateral flow based rapid diagnostic products and in developing and manufacturing high performance reagents and biological materials for use in those products" (1"The Gray Sheet" Dec. 3, 2007, p. 17)