• Alere Medical (Reno, Nevada), Paradigm Health (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey) and Matria Healthcare (Marietta, Georgia) reported that they are now united under a single brand. The three health management companies were acquired by Inverness Medical Innovations (IMI; Waltham, Massachusetts) in separate transactions. The three firms will operate under the name Alere, as a unit of IMI. CEO Ron Geraty, MD, who was CEO of Alere Medical at the time of its acquisition, said the new Alere offers a continuum of healthcare services, in-home diagnostics, monitoring devices and case management services.

• French in vitro diagnostics maker bioMérieux (Paris) said it has acquired privately held AviaraDx (San Diego), a diagnostics test maker, for $60 million. bioMérieux said it plans to keep AviaraDx as an independent legal entity called bioTheranostics. Richard Ding, bioMérieux's corporate VP of business development and theranostics, has been named CEO of bioTheranostics.

• Cardinal Health (Dublin, Ohio) reported the completion of the sale of its MedSystems (Wheeling, Illinois) business to Linden (Chicago), a healthcare and life sciences private equity firm. The company has been renamed Corpak MedSystems under Linden's ownership. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

• ConvaTec (Skillman, New Jersey), a developer of wound therapeutics and ostomy care products, reported that it has completed its acquisition of Unomedical (Birkerod, Denmark), a manufacturer of single-use medical devices. ConvaTec was spun off from Bristol Myers Squibb (New York) in August and was acquired by Nordic Capital and Avista Capital Partners for $4.1 billion. Nordic and Avista had reported their plans to merge the two companies after the ConvaTec acquisition.

• Hanger Orthopedic Group (Bethesda, Maryland) reported that it has acquired Advanced Prosthetics of America (Tampa, Florida), Manhasset Orthotics-Prosthetics (Hicksville, New York), and Custom Design Orthotic & Prosthetic (Kirby, Ohio). These acquisitions add patient care centers to existing markets in Florida, New York and Ohio, Hanger said. Hanger provides orthotic and prosthetic patient care services.

• Healthtronics (Austin, Texas) withdrew its $2.28 a share offer for Endocare (also Austin) that was initially proposed in early August saying it has heard nothing from Endocare's board since that company rejected its offer as "inadequate" in mid-August. The offer, valued at $26.9 million, would have merged the two companies' efforts in urology and prostate cancer treatment and would have given Healthtronics both broader and deeper presence in these markets. The offer represented a 20% premium above Endocare's closing stock price on Aug. 6.

• MicroMed Cardiovascular (Houston) is now a private company. The final step in the process was a reverse split of its common stock and a repurchase of the fractional shares from the MicroMed shareholders holding smaller positions. At the time of the reverse split, E-Wilson (also Houston) had accumulated 97.5% of the outstanding MicroMed shares. The company said it received confirmation of the reverse split on Aug. 25, making E-Wilson the single shareholder of MicroMed. MicroMed makes a small implantable electric pump (the DeBakey VAD) that is intended to increase the cardiac output of a patient with a failing left ventricle.

• Natus Medical (San Carlos, California) reported that it has agreed to acquire privately held NeuroCom International (Clackamas, Oregon), which develops computerized systems for the assessment and rehabilitation of balance and mobility disorders, for a cash price of $18 million. Natus said the acquisition, which it expects to complete in early October, adds to its growth opportunities by broadening its product offerings in the company's neurology business. Natus is a provider of healthcare products used for the screening, detection, treatment, monitoring and tracking of common medical ailments such as hearing impairment, neurological dysfunction, epilepsy, sleep disorders and newborn care.

• Zimmer Holdings (Warsaw, Indiana) said it has agreed to acquire Abbott Spine (Austin, Texas) from Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, Illinois) for roughly $360 million in cash. Zimmer said it plans to pay for Abbott Spine with cash on hand and borrowings under existing credit facilities. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. The boards of both companies have approved the deal, stockholder approval is not required, Zimmer said. Zimmer expects the transaction to be about 3 cents dilutive to adjusted diluted earnings per share in 4Q08, between 8 cents and 10 cents dilutive in 2009 and neutral to slightly dilutive in 2010. Zimmer also expects to incur $40 million to $50 million in restructuring and integration costs in connection with the transaction, primarily related to the integration of the separate global sales networks, the company said.