P&G; plans to invest in medical device venture

Procter & Gamble Co., the largest U.S. consumer-goods maker, plans to invest $325 million in cash and provide marketing in a joint venture it will form with Inverness Medical Innovations Inc.

Cincinnati-based P&G; will sell and distribute medical diagnostic devices developed by Waltham, Mass.-based Inverness, which makes home pregnancy and fertility tests, under the joint venture that each company would equally own. The transaction is set to close in the first quarter of 2007, the companies said.