Philips buys unit from Medel, building on Respironics purchase

Royal Philips Electronics NV, the largest maker of patient-monitoring systems, acquired the aerosol therapy unit of Medel SpA to expand its product offering for patients suffering from breathing disorders.

Philips also bought a manufacturing facility in China that makes such products, the Amsterdam-based company said in a statement today. Financial details weren’t disclosed.

The transactions follow Philips’s 3.6 billion-euro ($4.9 billion) purchase of Respironics Inc. in March. U.S.-based Respironics makes masks and ventilators to use in patients’ homes for the treatment of respiratory disorders. Italy-based Medel sells devices to deliver liquid medication in the form of mist.

Philips’s health-care unit has a “very well-filled target pipeline” for acquisitions in emerging markets, company executive Ronald de Jong said today at a meeting with reporters in Amsterdam.

De Jong also said Philips aims to increase its market share for medical equipment in emerging markets to 25 percent in 2012 from 18.5 percent last year. De Jong is responsible for the health-care unit’s operations in emerging markets, which include Latin America, India, China and Russia.