Medtronic, a US-based manufacturer of implantable heart-rhythm devices, has acquired Cardiocom, a disease-management and patient-monitoring firm, in a $200m all-cash deal.
Cardiocom is a manufacturer of glucose monitors and weight scales for use at home that enable doctors to detect early signs of heart failure, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Medtronic plans to strengthen its focus on devices to handle heart-failure. According to firm's estimation, the US spends around $40bn a year in treating heart failure.
Medtronic's implantable heart-failure devices cost over $30,000 for a single and only about 13% of 7.5 million heart-failure patients can avail the devices.
The acquisition of Cardiocom would allow Medtronic to cater to a wider base of heart patients.
Through this purchase, Medtronic is targeting other disease areas such as diabetes. The company expects that future purchases could build on the Cardiocom acquisition deal.
As a leading provider of patient home-monitoring services, Cardiocom in 2010 had a market share of 12.5%, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan.
