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Internet of medical things: Malvern heart-tracker maker buys Mass. diabetes firm

BioTelemetry pays up to $12M for Telcare Med

BioTelemetry Inc., Malvern, which makes heart-monitor systems, says it paid $7 million upfront, plus up to $5 million in future payments, to acquire Concord, Mass.-based Telcare Medical Supply Inc., which has developed an FDA-approved smartphone blood sugar monitoring system for use by diabetics.

BioTelemetry expects Telcare sales will top $5 million a year starting this year.  In a statement, BioTelemetry chief executive Joseph H. Capper said BioTelemetry is building on its experience developing a medical data collection, analysis, storage and distribution systems, in adding Telcare's "digital population health management" and helping diabetes providers and patients cut costs.

"Telcare, fueled by its wireless BGM system and highly sophisticated, cloud-based population analytics, provides us with a powerful platform from which to build," and will boost BioTelemetry sales and profits, Capper added.

BioTelemetry went public in 2008 as CardioNet Inc. and initially built a large sales force, based in West Conshohocken, to sell infant monitors. Shares fell during the recession as the company missed its initial insurance reimbursement targets. But under Capper the company has revived, with employment rising from 665 in 2011 to more than 900.

Analsysts expect BioTelemetry sales will top $200 million, and profits rise above $20 million, for the first time this year.