By Kim Coghill

Washington Editor

United Therapeutics Corp. said it purchased Medicomp Inc. and Telemedical Procedures LLC, two Florida-based companies that specialize in services that address the needs of patients suffering from cardiac arrhythmias and other abnormalities such as ischemic events.

The companies provide cardiac Holter and event-monitoring analysis services remotely via proprietary peer-to-peer networks using telephone and Internet connections.

The announcement comes within weeks of Unither Pharmaceuticals Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of United Therapeutics, acquiring all assets of Cooke Pharma Inc., of Belmont, Calif., makers of HeartBar, a medical food for angina and other cardiovascular conditions.

"These are nice things to be able to offer patients with cardiovascular problems, there's no doubt about that," said Craig West, a biotech analyst with A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis. "From a one-stop shopping point of view, that makes some sense, but from a financial standpoint, there's not a lot of effect."

The purchase of Medicomp and Telemedical was structured as an asset purchase, a statement released by Silver Spring, Md.-based UTC said. UTC paid $8 million in cash and issued about 260,000 shares of common stock for the assets, which were worth about $3.6 million at the market's open Friday. The stock component of the consideration is subject to adjustment. UTC's stock (NASDAQ:UTHR) closed Friday at $14.75, up 87.5 cents.

In mid-December, Unither acquired Cooke for 300,000 shares of stock valued then at $4.7 million. Unither also will pay a single-digit cash royalty to Cooke on sales of Cooke Pharma's products up to an additional $49 million.

"The acquisitions make United Therapeutics slightly more attractive because they are putting together some bits and pieces that hopefully they can stitch together into something that's greater than the sum of its parts," West said. "I don't quite see it yet because it is difficult to see use of a cardiac arrhythmic meter for pulmonary hypertension patients. So I don't know that it really enhances their ability to sell into that core market, so does it make some ancillary sense? Yes, I think perhaps that it does."

The last few months have not necessarily been positive for UTC as its stock tumbled 62 percent after the company said anticipated revenues would be much lower than analysts estimated for UTC's proposed subcutaneous treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension, UT-15, or Uniprost. UTC expects partial first-year revenues for 2001 to range between $10 million and $20 million, much lower than the $80 million some analysts had predicted. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 5, 2000.)

The FDA granted UTC six-month priority review on UT-15, an orphan drug. In mid-December, the FDA said it was not necessary for UT-15 to be reviewed by the Cardiovascular and Renal Advisory Committee. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 18, 2000.)

West said he expects UT-15 will be approved.