Inverness Medical Innovations has completed the acquisitions of Vision Biotech (Pty) and Global Diagnostics CC, both located in South Africa.
Vision specialises in the development and manufacture of Malaria lateral flow tests and has achieved an international reputation for manufacturing Malaria P falciparum and Malaria Pan assays.
Global Diagnostics is a product distributor and will provide marketing and sales resource to Inverness's new subsidiary IMI SA (Pty) based in Johannesburg.
The burden placed upon the developing world by Malaria has generated a global response and significant funding.
In September 2008, an announcement was made at the Millennium Development Goals Malaria Summit in New York that more than USD3bn (GBP1.9bn) in new funds would be committed to the campaign to virtually eliminate malaria deaths by 2015.
This is in addition to already substantial commitments from the President's Malaria Initiative, the Gates Foundation and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
These acquisitions provide Inverness with its first direct manufacturing and distribution base on the African continent.
The facilities will enable the company to best support the growing demand for quality, low cost malaria diagnostics in Africa, and provide a platform for aggressive growth plans in the region as it prepares to introduce transformational diagnostic products.
