Drive Medical buys Inovo/Chad Therapeutics

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. - Drive Medical announced last week that it has acquired Inovo/Chad Therapeutics, paving the way for it to become a more significant player in the respiratory market.

"This is just the beginning for us," said Harvey Diamond, president of Drive Medical. "We're looking to make some additional acquisitions in this category."

Inovo/Chad Therapeutics will operate as a standalone division of Drive Medical and will continue to manufacture products from its facility in Naples, Fla. Inovo, which manufacturers oxygen conservers and regulators under private label, acquired Chad Therapeutics, a leading brand in the market, in 2008.

Drive Medical already manufactures a number of respiratory products--nebulizers, suction pumps, pulse oximeters and even regulators--but Inovo/Chad Therapeutics will help round out its portfolio and, more importantly, provide the R&D it needs to expand further, Diamond said.

"The respiratory category needs a lot of focus on it; it's a lot different than some of the simpler items that we offer," he said. "We felt that with this acquisition, we could bring in the intellectual property and engineering staff that you need to create solutions that are not equal to what's out there today, but better."

Will one of those solutions be an oxygen concentrator, a big hole in Drive Medical's existing respiratory product portfolio? The manufacturer introduced a stationary oxygen concentrator last year and put it into limited production and distribution, but it never put it into full distribution.

"We decided, as we looked to buy some respiratory companies, that we should hold off," Diamond said. "We're hearing a lot about POCs, a lot about filling tanks at home and even about liquid. We're not sure yet. As we get involved in Inovo/Chad, we're going to start making those decisions."

To date, Inovo/Chad Therapeutics' business has been focused on a delivery model for oxygen therapy.

"This direction provides us with the opportunity to look outside that," said George Harris, CEO.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.