Wireless heart-monitoring device maker Preventice has merged with eCardio Diagnostics, which makes more traditional remote cardiac monitoring systems.
Preventice's BodyGuardian patch, worn on the chest, delivers information to a dedicated Samsung smart phone that conveys it to the patient’s physician.
The new holding company, Preventice Inc., will be headquartered in eCardio’s hometown of Houston, the companies announced Sept. 9.
Minneapolis-based Preventice, which previously employed 75, will gain a national sales staff for its BodyGuardian wearable heart monitoring system. The BodyGuardian patch, worn on the chest, delivers information to a dedicated Samsung smart phone that conveys it to the patient’s physician.
Ten-year-old eCardio, which makes heart-monitoring equipment that connects to the patient via wires and electrodes, will continue to monitor patients from Houston and South San Francisco. eCardio gains a wireless remote system in BodyGuardian, according to Preventice spokesperson Bryan Claseman.
“It’s a device that’s intended for patients who have non-lethal arrhythmias,” Claseman said. “Patients can go about living their normal life and nobody knows what is happening.”
Mayo Clinic physicians, who developed and licensed BodyGuardian to Preventice, will continue to work with the combined company at its Rochester, MN facility, Claseman said.
eCardio makes its mobile cardiac telemetry devices available to physicians for patients to wear for up to 30 days to detect heart arrhythmias, according to company spokesperson Kristeen Jones.
Although it was reported elsewhere that Merck acquired eCardio in August, Jones said the Federal Trade Commission required Merck, a shareholder in Preventice, to make a Hart-Scott-Rodino filing with the agency in August to pave the way for the eCardio-Preventice merger to occur. The Merck Global Health Innovation Fund is majority stockholder of the new company.
“These two great companies are coming together in a truly complementary fashion,” John Untereker, formerly eCardio’s chief operating officer and now EVP and COO of Preventice, Inc., said in a statement to Qmed.com. “Our attributes, when combined with the strategic reach and the vision of the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and Mayo Clinic, give us an incredible amount of confidence in our ability to accelerate the quality of health care delivery in the future.”
