Scottish diagnostic device company Axis-Shield has accepted a takeover bid by US ‘connected health’ specialist Alere three months after rejecting a slightly lower offer from the same company.

Alere is motivated to acquire Axis-Shield’s Afinion multi-parameter point of care testing devices, which compete with its US diagnostic products.

Axis-Shield rejected an offer of £230m from the US company in July but has now accepted an offer of £235m, an increase of only 2%.

The Dundee-based company blamed the “volatile economic and market backdrop” for its amended decision.

Alere took its second offer directly to Axis-Shield’s shareholders following the company’s rejection of its first offer.

Business analyst Mike Mitchell of Seymour Pierce commented that the increase in the offer was “not much more than a token gesture,” adding that “under more settled circumstances, the board may have considered to take a more robust position.”

Afinion, described by Axis-Shield as “a new concept in Point of Care”, is a multiparameter analyser device for on-the-spot testing of whole blood, plasma or urine samples for a range of characteristics including HbA1c and cholesterol.

Based in Massachusetts, Alere specialises in diagnostic testing systems for a range of conditions, supporting home-based healthcare through a ‘connected health’ strategy.

AstraZeneca’s Crestor has not proved as effective as Pfizer’s Lipitor at preventing cholesterol build-up in one of the arteries leading to the heart, a new study has found.

The SATURN trial’s results came as a surprise after a previous study demonstrated Crestor reversed the build-up of artery plaque, but this reduction did not reach statistical significance.

The “top-line results are not the slam dunk AstraZeneca might have been hoping for,” said Mike Mitchell, an analyst at Seymour Pierce.

The new data leads to the possibility that doctors currently prescribing Crestor will switch to a generic version of Lipitor when it becomes available.

The 104-week SATURN (Study of Coronary, Atheroma by InTravascular Ultrasound: Effect of Rosuvastatin Versus AtorvastatiN) trial involved 1,300 patients, comparing a 40mg dose of Crestor against an 80mg dose of Lipitor.

Meanwhile, Pfizer’s legal battle with generics manufacturer Ranbaxy has ended with Ranbaxy now free to start selling the generic atorvastatin in November 2011.

Ian Read, President of Pfizer, said the deal with Ranbaxy was “a win-win-win because it is pro-patient, pro-competition and pro-intellectual property”.