CryoLife Misses Q3 Revenues, Buys JOTEC

Third quarter earnings season is off to a bad start for Cryolife, Inc. (NYSE:CRY), maker of medical devices and tissue processing systems focused on cardiac and vascular surgery. CRY stock slumped on Wednesday, October 11, when the company reported Q3 revenues of $45.1 million, well below its previously announced guidance of $46.5 million to $47.5 million. Not even an acquisition turned the stock northward, and it stayed down about 16% throughout the day. On October 10, Cryolife announced the acquisition of German medical device developer JOTEC AG, which makes technologically differentiated endovascular stent grafts, and cardiac and vascular surgical grafts, focused on... Read More »
Deal of the Week: Boston Scientific/Apama

Deal of the Week: Boston Scientific/Apama

Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) announced its second acquisition of the year, targeting privately held Apama Medical Inc. in a deal for $175 million. That’s small potatoes compared with its previously announced deal for Symetis SA, the Swiss maker of transcatheter aortic valve implantation devices, for $435 million. The Apama transaction consists of $175 million in cash up-front and a maximum of $125 million in contingent payments over the period of 2018-2020 based on achievements of clinical and regulatory milestones. Based in California, Apama Medical is developing radiofrequency balloon catheter system for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). AF, a heart rhythm... Read More »
Deal of the Week: Boston Scientific/Apama

Deal of the Week: Shandong Weigao/Argon Medical Devices

In the first nine months of 2017, Chinese investment in U.S. healthcare companies rose 300% compared with all of 2016. Shandong Weigao Group (1066.HK), a Chinese developer of single-use medical devices, announced its acquisition of Texas-based Argon Medical Devices on September 24, marking the 12th acquisition by a Chinese company in 2017. Shandong agreed to pay $850 million for a 90% stake in the privately-held medical device maker.  Argon develops, manufactures and sells devices for interventional radiology, vascular surgery, interventional cardiology, and critical care procedures, including biopsy products, drainage catheters and systems that remove blood clots. The company... Read More »

Deal of the Week: Teleflex/NeoTract

The Deal of the Week (ended Sept. 8, 2017) is also the largest announced in the holiday-shortened work week. Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE: TFX) announced its first acquisition this year, paying $725 million upfront for privately held NeoTract, Inc. It marks a new focus for the medical device maker, whose previous buyouts concentrated in cardiovascular and microlaparoscopy surgical technologies. NeoTract is a medical device maker that has developed and commercialized the FDA-cleared UroLift System, a novel, minimally invasive technology for treating lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH. Anyone who watches professional sports televised on Sunday afternoons... Read More »
Alere Spins Off Assets to Aid Abbott Merger

Alere Spins Off Assets to Aid Abbott Merger

Since February 2016, we’ve followed the testy merger between Abbott (NYSE: ABT) and Alere’s (NYSE: ALR) agreement to merge, followed by the respective lawsuits, and then the price renegotiation. Half way through 2017, the $5.3 billion deal is getting closer to completion, as Alere spins off some assets to comply with antitrust regulations. The first to go is Alere’s Triage® MeterPro cardiovascular (CV) and toxicology assets (“Triage business”), together with the B-type Naturietic Peptide (BNP) assay business run on Beckman Coulter analyzers (“BNP business”). The buyer is  Quidel Corporation (NASDAQ: QDEL), which will acquire the Triage business, including real estate for the San... Read More »

Medical Device Sector Is Most Active in H1:17

The Medical Device sector has been humming. Granted, it comprises a huge range of things, from hip and knee joints to cardiovascular devices. Since 2016, 176 deals have been announced, and $102 billion has been committed based on 73 disclosed prices. Among the 176 deals, 14 target companies specialize in cardiovascular devices, 14 specialize in orthopedic and spine devices, 10 specialize in aesthetic devices each, and eight specialize in vascular devices, to name a few. The most recent deal, on July 10, was of a company that covered a very interesting niche of medical devices. ThermoGenesis Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cesca Therapeutics Inc., (NASDAQ: KOOL) acquired privately held... Read More »