Omron Healthcare Agrees on Equity Investment and Expansion of Business Partnership with AliveCor

KYOTO, Japan, March 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Omron Healthcare Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Muko, Kyoto, Japan, President & CEO: Isao Ogino,) the global market leader in heart health and wellness technology announced today an agreement on a business partnership in the cardiovascular disease (CVD) field, with Omron Healthcare making equity investment in AliveCor Inc. (Headquarters: Mountain View, California, U.S., CEO: Vic Gundotra), a global provider of definitive diagnosis and monitoring/treatment services for atrial fibrillation (AF). Through this business partnership and equity investment, the two companies will integrate their prominent technologies, products, and services in the CVD field, thereby accelerating their ongoing efforts to "eliminate the incidence of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular events."

Incidence of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases, such as cerebral infarction and myocardial infarction caused by hypertension, can lead directly to death or leave patients bedridden or with speech disabilities, which can result in a considerable decrease in the quality of life (QOL) of the patients as well as their families. Ever since the release of its home-use blood pressure monitors in 1973, Omron Healthcare has remained deeply committed to educating the public on the importance of monitoring blood pressure at home while simultaneously increasing the measurement precision and usability of home-use blood pressure monitors.

As a leading company in the cardiovascular disease business with its main product being blood pressure monitors, Omron Healthcare has set for itself a business mission of "Going for Zero" incidents of heart attack and stroke and is forging ahead with the development of technologies, products and services to realize this vision.

AliveCor is a renowned provider of advanced products and services in the CVD field, with its core services being monitoring and diagnosis support for AF through distribution of mobile cardiographs. Since the debut of the world's first mobile cardiograph unit (FDA-cleared) in 2012, AliveCor has delivered a variety of premium products and services. Starting in March 2017, the company will launch its "Kardia Pro" platform service, which allows specialists to monitor patients' electrocardiography (EKG) data remotely and perform diagnosis and treatment. With products and services ranging from wearable EKG equipment and a unique algorithm for diagnosis of AF, to a platform directly connecting patients with 30,000 cardiologists across the U.S., AliveCor is increasingly committed to achieving its goal to "zero cardiovascular events" through delivery of seamless services.

In expanding the partnership and pursing it's "Zero Events" goal, Omron Corporation, parent company of Omron Healthcare, will make a twenty five million dollar equity investment in AliveCor to explore deeper collaboration and new technologies that will make meaningful strides toward eliminating heart attack and stroke. In addition to the equity investment, Omron Healthcare and AliveCor announced the additional components of the business partnership:

1. Incorporation of Omron Healthcare's remote blood pressure monitoring service into "KardiaPro"
   Omron Healthcare will incorporate its remote blood pressure monitoring service into "KardiaPro", a platform service for remote monitoring of EKG data and diagnosis/treatment from AliveCor. The new platform will make it possible to manage blood pressure in addition to EKG data.
2. Distribution of AliveCor's mobile EKG monitoring units through Omron Healthcare's sales networks
   Omron Healthcare will distribute AliveCor's mobile EKG monitoring unit Kardia Mobile through its global sales networks in a move to make AliveCor's premium definitive diagnosis and monitoring/treatment of AF available in an extended range of territories beyond the U.S.
3. Joint development of new algorithms and services for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases
   Integrated analysis of EKG and blood pressure data will increase accuracy in estimating the risk of cardiovascular disease. Under the new partnership, the two companies will pool their know-how to embark on the development of an algorithm that can achieve integrated analysis of EKG and blood pressure data and calculation of risk scores, as well as services that incorporate such an algorithm.
4. Joint development of devices
   The two companies jointly will develop a device that measures EKG while estimating a blood pressure, which will make it possible to gather data necessary to calculate the risk of cardiovascular disease without any additional effort.

The two companies believe that this agreement on a business partnership and equity investment will allow them to advance their research into integrated management and analysis of blood pressure and EKG data that are closely linked to it and to estimate patients' risk of developing cerebrovascular and cardiovascular events with greater accuracy, thereby accelerating their drive to "reduce the incidence of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular events to zero."

About Omron Healthcare, Ltd.

Committed to improving people's lives, Omron Healthcare provides clinically proven, innovative medical equipment for health monitoring and therapy. Our product portfolio includes blood pressure monitors, nebulizers, electronic thermometers, blood glucose monitors and activity counters as well as body composition monitors and professional medical devices. For many decades, Omron's devices have helped people to prevent, treat and manage lifestyle diseases both at home and in clinical practice in more than 100 countries in the world. Omron Healthcare Group is headquartered in Muko City, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Its President is Isao Ogino.

About AliveCor, Inc.

AliveCor, Inc. is pioneering the creation of FDA-cleared 'machine learning' techniques to enable proactive heart care and is recognized around the world for transforming cardiac care. The FDA-cleared Kardia Mobile is the most clinically validated mobile ECG solution on the market and is recommended by leading cardiologists and used by people worldwide for accurate ECG recordings. This simple-to-use mobile device and app-based service provides instant analysis for detecting atrial fibrillation (AF) and normal sinus rhythm in an ECG. AliveCor was recognized by Fast Company as one of 2017's most innovative companies in health (#3). AliveCor is a privately held company headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. For more information, please visit alivecor.com.

SOURCE Omron Healthcare, Inc.