Inverness Medical Innovations (IMI; Waltham, Massachusetts) has continued its 2007 acquisition spree, last week reporting an agreement to buy Alere Medical (Reno, Nevada) for $302 million, consisting of about $125 million in cash and $177 million in IMI common stock.

Alere provides health and care management services helping patients with chronic illnesses manage their conditions through a combination of at-home monitoring, patient education, and nurse-patient relationships. The company’s 2007 revenues are expected to be about $77 million.

Earlier this month the company said it would acquire all the shares of Panbio (Brisbane, Australia) for 65 cents a share in cash. The proposal values the issued share capital of Panbio at about A$41 million ($37 million). Panbio develops diagnostic tests, including those used in the diagnosis of flaviviruses and other arthropod-borne viruses, selling worldwide.

That deal was reported just a few days after the company said it had acquired UK-based Bio-Stat Healthcare Group, a distributor of both core laboratory and point-of-care diagnostic testing products to the UK market place, for about $33.4 million. In addition, Inverness said it would pay an earn-out up to about $14.6 million based on BioStat’s 2007 results.

Other acquisitions Inverness has reported this year include: Cholestech (Hayward, California), a maker of rapid diagnostic products, which it completed in September for $326.3 million and first disclosed in June; Maritech (Newton, Massachusetts), a developer of protein-based diagnostics, for about $36 million; HemoSense (San Jose, California), a developer of handheld blood coagulation monitoring systems, in an all-stock deal for $165 million; and Biosite (San Diego) for $92.50 a share, beating out rival Beckman Coulter (Fullerton, California).

“The acquisition of Alere Medical is an exciting opportunity to enter the disease management industry, a move which fits naturally with our goal of enabling individuals to take charge of their health,” said Ron Zwanziger, CEO of Inverness. “Alere’s expertise in patient monitoring and particularly in home chronic heart failure management complements our cardiac diagnostic technologies being developed at Biosite in San Diego and at Stirling Medical in Scotland. In addition, Alere brings with it exceptional management, a solid business platform, and strong revenues and profitability and is consistent with our overall acquisition strategy.”

The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year.

Ron Geraty, CEO of Alere, said the company is “thrilled” to become part of IMI.

“We believe that combining our efforts with those of Inverness will ensure continued growth within the care management industry,” Geraty said. “Acceptance of disease management within the medical community continues to accelerate, and this transaction will solidify Alere’s efforts to provide better services to its physician participants and hasten the movement towards an advanced medical home. We believe Inverness’ entry into the care management sector will help Alere to improve the position and viability of care management as a solution to healthcare’s challenges.”

Separately, IMIalso reported that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-4 that includes a preliminary proxy statement for a special meeting of the Matritech (Newton, Massachusetts) stockholders in connection with IMI’s proposed $36 million acquisition of Matritech that was first disclosed in August.

As previously disclosed, in connection with this proposed acquisition transaction with IMI, Matritech has agreed to convene a special meeting of its stockholders to vote upon the approval of the asset sale and asset purchase agreement, the dissolution of Matritech and the change of the corporation’s name pending the dissolution.

The asset sale, dissolution and name change are conditioned upon approval by Matritech’s stockholders and the asset sale is further conditioned on the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions, and is expected to close in 4Q07.

Matritech is a developer of protein-based diagnostic products for the early detection of cancer. It is using its patented proteomics technology to develop diagnostics for the detection of a variety of cancers. The company’s first two products, the NMP22 Test Kit and NMP22 BladderChek Test, have been FDA cleared for the monitoring and diagnosis of bladder cancer. The company has discovered other proteins associated with cervical, breast, prostate, and colon cancer.

In other dealmaking news:

Scientific instruments maker PerkinElmer (Waltham, Massachusetts) said it received antitrust clearance for its pending takeover of ViaCell (Cambridge, Massachusetts).

In October, PerkinElmer began a tender offer to buy the biotech company for $7.25 per share in cash. Based on ViaCell’s 38.8 million outstanding shares as of Aug. 7, the deal is worth about $281.6 million.

On Oct. 1, when the acquisition was first disclosed, PerkinElmer valued it at about $300 million, or $260 million net of cash. The company has said it is buying ViaCell to expand its product line in the neonatal and prenatal markets. ViaCell makes ViaCord, which preserves umbilical cord blood.

The tender offer expires at midnight, EST, Nov. 8.

PerkinElmer provides products and services for the life and analytical sciences, optoelectronics and fluid sciences.