Acquisitions In Brief

Inverness buys distributor of drugs-of-abuse tests: Diagnostics firm Inverness Medical Innovations acquires rapid drugs-of-abuse test distributor Redwood Toxicology Laboratory for $99 million. Announced Dec. 20, the cash deal includes a toxicology lab for conducting confirmatory testing services. Privately held Redwood, which is based in Santa Rosa, Calif., has annual sales of $44 million and is profitable. It is the largest single distributor of Inverness' drugs-of-abuse tests, Inverness says. In addition, Inverness' Innovacon subsidiary already makes "virtually all" of the products sold by Redwood, according to Inverness. Inverness acquired home drugs-of-abuse test firm First Check Diagnostics for $25 million last February and in March also acquired 75% of the rapid drugs-of-abuse test distributor Instant Technologies for $43.7 million. Other recent Inverness deals include its $170 million purchase of lateral flow test maker BBI Holdings (1"The Gray Sheet" Dec. 17, 2007, In Brief)