A Medical Device Daily

Inverness Medical Innovations (IMI; Waltham, Massachusetts) yesterday reported that Biosite (San Diego) has not responded to its offer to acquire it in a merger for $90 a share in cash (Medical Device Daily, April 6, 2007). The proposal was delivered to Biosite's board in a letter dated April 4.

IMI is attempting to block the purchase of Biosite by Beckman Coulter (BC; Fullerton, California), which in late March made an offer of $85 a share for the company, putting the proposed buy at about $1.55 billion in value.

Ron Zwanziger, president/CEO and chairman of IMI, said, "We are dismayed by Biosite's silence and disturbed by its continued disregard of its fiduciary duty to the Biosite stockholders." He expressed confidence that Biosite stockholders would have "serious concerns regarding the integrity of Biosite's supposedly competitive bidding process and will apply pressure to the Biosite board to respond favorably to our superior proposal.

He called his company's proposal "serious and bonafide. "[W]e have arranged the necessary financing commitments and we are determined to move forward to complete our superior transaction as expeditiously as Biosite and its board will allow."

Last week, Zwanzier said that IMI has been attempting to develop a dialogue with Biosite over the past 10 months for a "potential combination" of the companies.

Covington Associates and UBS Investment Bank are acting as financial advisors to IMI. Goodwin Procter is serving as legal counsel to Inverness, a developer of diagnostic devices with a focus on women's health, cardiology and infectious disease.