ROCKVILLE, Md., Oct. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Kalorama Information said that market share change is a given in the point-of-care part of the in vitro diagnostics market with the now-completed acquisition of Alere by Abbott. The healthcare market researcher said the acquisition means the conjunction of the #2 and #3 companies in the POC market. Abbott said this week in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it has completed its acquisition of Waltham, MA–based testmaker Alere, a deal first announced in February 2016. Alere participates in nearly all POC test segments but has a dominating position in rapid cardiac markers, blood glucose including HbA1c, coagulation, drugs of abuse, infectious disease, lipid and pregnancy and fertility testing. Kalorama covers the POC market in its report Point of Care Market and Market Share Analysis.

"Point of care is a faster revenue growth area than most testing and new technologies have increased its ability to deliver," Kalorama Information Publisher Bruce Carlson said. "Molecular technologies, microfluidics, better connectivity to EMRs are among the recent developments that are making the concept more practical. We think this is the reason behind the initial move, which has been complicated by the legal delays."

Based on 2016 data compiled by Kalorama Information, the new company would be the largest point-of-care diagnostics with nearly a quarter of the POC market. While that would hypothetically be more than market leader Roche's 22% POC market share as determined in Kalorama's 2017 report, Kalorama says divestures made to accommodate regulatory clearance will cloud exact market share determination until Q4 financials. To overcome antitrust regulation, Alere sold off its Triage and B-type naturietic peptide assay businesses to POC specialist Quidel for $440 million. It also sold its blood gas assets to Siemens in order to get the European Commission to sign off on the deal. Abbott's Epocal line was sold to Siemens Healthineers this year as well as part of regulatory clearance. For their part, Abbott does claim it has "created the world's largest point-of-care business."
Alere became a subsidiary of Abbott and the company said in an SEC document that its shares have been removed from the New York Stock Exchange.

In March, Kalorama estimated that Alere's equipment was used in 455 million test procedures last year, adding to Abbot's own total of 3.1 billion test procedures in which its equipment was used. By comparison, Kalorama said, 21 billion test procedures were completed globally in 2016. Though the firm said most common global procedures are clinical chemistry procedures, and the types of procedures Alere brings tend to be of higher margin.

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