Opto Circuits (India) Ltd.(OCIL), the Bangalore based healthcare equipment manufacturer which announced the acquisition of German stent manufacturer EuroCor for about Rs.60 crore, yesterday, is next targeting to acquire a US based company which is developing a novel blood glucose monitoring machine.

At present blood glucose monitoring involves invasive methods to test the blood and the laser guided technology developed by the US company will be the first non-invasive blood glucose monitoring procedure. Opto Circuits aims to acquire either the technology or the company as a whole, as the US company at present is on the look out for partners to fund further research and development of the product. Talks are progressing towards materialising the acquisition within next six months, top-level officials of OCIL told Pharmabiz.

However, they declined to divulge further details.

“We are yet to finalise the deal size as due diligence report is yet to be ready. At this point of time, I can say that our buyout will be comprehensive to ensure that the IP rights of the product belong to us,” said a senior official.

Vinod Ramani, chairman and managing director of OCIL said, “The company is currently targeting two acquisitions in the US, including one in the field of cardiac care and another acquisition in Europe, apart from the EuroCOR takeover.”

The Rs. 79 crore OCIL had acquired 60 per cent stake in Advanced Micronic Devices (AMD) in 2001, the digital thermometer division of HLL in 2002 and the patient monitoring division of Palco Labs, US by the end of 2003 as part of its organic growth strategy.

The company officials said that OCIL was raising Rs. 100 crore from the market to expand the R&D facility in Bangalore and to fund for acquisitions. OCIL plans to invest about Rs. 20-25 crore at the R&D centre with 40 odd researchers, mainly in new generation equipments and technology.

Commenting on the EuroCOR takeover, Vinod Ramani said, “The acquisition was a diversification for OCIL, specialised in non-invasive sensors, medical devices and patient monitoring systems, into the field of invasive medical devices. OCIL hopes to enter the US market with EuroCOR stents within a couple of years. At present EuroCOR’s coronary stents and drug eluting stents (DES) has only CE certification. Once the takeover process is over, OCIL will start the process for the US FDA accreditation.”

At present the global coronary stent market is valued USD 10 billion. Of this, the US market is valued USD 5 billion and Europe accounts USD 3 billion.