In a recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Abbott announced that it has completed the acquisition of Alere, putting an end to the deal that was announced in 2016. Based on the data compiled in 2016, Kalorama Information predicts that Alere-Abbott would be the largest point-of-care diagnostics with nearly a quarter of the POC market.
A $7 billion segment of the in vitro diagnostics market, point of care testing is growing rapidly. One of the reasons for this expansion is that health care systems are increasingly relying on these technologies to inform patient care decisions with easy-to-use tests that provide fast and accurate results, especially in the outpatient setting.
A global healthcare company, Abbot's offerings include diagnostics, medical devices including quality POC devices like the i-STAT handheld analyzer, nutritionals, and branded generic pharmaceuticals. With the acquisition of Alere, Abbott has approximately $7 billion in diagnostics sales worldwide, including approximately $2.5 billion in point of care testing.
"Combined with Abbott's existing point of care business and its leading hand-held platform, i-STAT®, we now have the broadest point of care testing portfolio to help improve care for patients in more parts of the world, "says Brian Blaser, executive vice president, Diagnostics Products, Abbott.
Based on revenue, other key players in point of care (POC) diagnostics include Roche and Siemens. Coagulation and glucose testing are key areas where Roche scores more.
Kalorama, the leading publisher of healthcare market research, has covered the POC market in its Point of Care Market and Market Share Analysis report. The report features in-depth analysis of the market for the traditional set of point of care diagnostics tests including blood glucose testing, drugs of abuse screening, blood gas and electrolytes analysis, rapid coagulation testing, infectious disease testing and cholesterol screening.