Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) CEO Ray Elliott is making good on his promise to more aggressively pursue deals.
His company, based in Natick, Massachusetts but with major operations in Minnesota, said it will purchase replacement heart valve maker Sadra Medical Inc. for as much as $386 million.
Under terms of the deal, Boston Scientific will immediately pay $225 million plus another $225 million in milestone payments through 2016. However, since Boston Scientific already owns 14 percent of Sadra, the actual upfront payment is $193 million plus $193 million in milestone payments.
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
Since launching a major restructuring effort earlier this year, Boston Scientific has focused on injecting urgency and momentum into its operations. The company recently agreed to sell its neurovascular business to Stryker Corp. for $1.5 billion and bought Asthmatix Inc. for $193.5 million. The latter is developing a catheter-based treatment for breathing disorders.
The Sadra acquisition “represents another critical step in the execution of our strategy to realign Boston Scientific’s portfolio,” Elliott said in a statement. “We will continue to pursue additional priority growth initiatives to strengthen our company by buying or building products we understand, to be sold through sales forces we already have.”
Sadra also represents the latest of Minnesota’s “Big Three” medical device firms to ink a deal in the fast-growing structural heart market this year. Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT) acquired ATS Medical for $370 million. St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE:STJ) will close its $1.3 billion purchase of AGA Medical Friday.
Sadra makes replacement valves for patients suffering from clogged aortas, the body’s main blood vessel.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“The acquisition of Sadra demonstrates Boston Scientific’s commitment to providing the most complete and advanced portfolio of less-invasive technology solutions across the entire continuum of cardiovascular care,” Hank Kucheman, executive vice president and group president for the cardiology, rhythm and vascular division based in Arden Hills, Minnesota, said in a statement.
“Structural heart disease — and in particular percutaneous valve replacement — is an important emerging technology for interventional cardiologists, and we believe the [Sadra system] can offer significant competitive advantages over existing technologies,” Kucheman said.
