Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) is on the move again. The Palo Alto, California-based medical device maker announced two deals in May 2019 targeting two very different companies. Varian (market cap $11.6 billion) designs, manufactures, sells and services medical devices and software products for treating cancer and other medical conditions.
The earlier deal, announced on May 9, brought aboard privately held cardiac ablation firm Cyberheart, based in Sunnyvale, California, for an undisclosed amount. CyberHeart’s intellectual property covers cardiac radioablation, which involves using radiation in the heart and other forms of radiosurgery for certain heart diseases.
The second deal, with a price of $283 million, was for Cancer Treatment Services International (CTSI), owned by TPG Growth‘s Asia Healthcare Holdings in Hyderabad, India. CTSI, which ran one facility in Hyderabad in 2016, has grown to a network of 11 cancer hospitals with a pipeline of six more in India and South Asia.
CTSI also owns brands such as the American Oncology Institute in Hyderabad, the U.S.-based Oncology Solutions division, and AmPath, a laboratory and pathology services provider in India. This transation will increase Varian’s expertise in cancer center operations, allowing for new partnerships globally.
Varian has steadily broadened its global reach and capabilities through acquisitions made in recent years. In 2018, the company announced four deals, which added digital health services such as the Finnish Noona Healthcare, which created a mobile service designed to capture cancer patient-reported outcomes for clinicians, the Canadian clinical decision support software company, Evinance Innovations, and Texas-based Mobius Medical Systems, a leader in radiation oncology quality assurance software that is used at more than 1,000 sites worldwide.
The fourth deal announced last year was for Australian SIRTex Medical Limited (then ASX: SRX), based in North Sydney, Australia. SIRTex is a global life sciences company whose lead product is a targeted internal radiation therapy for certain liver cancers.
That acquisition, for $1.28 billion in cash, extended Varian’s presence in radiation medicine and expanded its addressable market into interventional oncology. It’s the largest (disclosed) amount Varian has paid for another company or business line.
