Medical information technology firm McKesson Corporation (NYSE: MCK) is impressed with Israeli medical technology companies, and is open to acquiring some of them.
In 2005, McKesson acquired Medcon Telemedicine Technology Inc., a growing medical device company listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), for $105 million. McKesson is one of the world's leading healthcare computer services, with $3 billion in annual sales. Medcon develops and manufactures cardiac image and information management solutions. It was founded by Dr. Judith and Kobi Richter, the owners of stent maker Medinol Ltd.
McKesson Provider Technologies SVP strategy and business development Mikael Ohman said, "We're pleased by the acquisition of Medcon. They're great people." McKesson Provider Technologies provides healthcare IT software, automation, services and consulting to hospitals, physician offices, imaging centers and home healthcare agencies.
Ohman added that as a result of the favorable experience with Medcon, McKesson may acquire more Israeli companies. "We're in contact with 600 companies worldwide, many of them Israeli. We're impressed by the level of innovation and engineering at Israeli companies. Given this fact and that acquisitions are part of McKesson's strategy, I'd be surprised if there won't be greater substantial cooperation with an Israeli company in the not-to-distant future."
Ohman said, "Israeli companies excel in the link between medical devices and computerization."
Ohman is referring to medical devices that collate information on a patient's condition. "It's been realized in recent years that information collated by a device doesn’t have to stay there, and that it should be transmitted to a central computer system," he said, adding that the current direction is for devices to receive information from external sources, although this area is much less developed.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 12, 2009
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