Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) and Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT) may be locked in an eternal blood feud, but the rivals’ search for a new chief executive will look similar, according to BSX CEO J. Raymond Elliott.
“We’re putting a big emphasis on international,” Elliott told a group of analysts in Boston. “Very similar to Medtronic.”
Elliott, who is retiring at year end, laid out some plans for his potential successor and what qualities the company is looking for in a new boss. Elliott said the company is seeking someone who will execute the vision of what his team has put in place, as well as knowledge of emerging markets outside of the U.S.
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“We’ve done a tremendous amount of work and to have someone come in and blow that up is not happening,” he said. He added that the company is looking for candidates all over the map, but they will likely come from health care and have experience as a CEO or COO.
In May, Medtronic tapped GE Healthcare’s former chief Omar Ishrak to lead the company post William Hawkins, who retired at the end of April. Industry observers expect that Ishrak’s tenure will not be radically different than Hawkins’, who championed a transformation for Medtronic into a chronic disease management company but has had his troubles with Wall Street. Ishrak is seen by many on Wall Street as an “execution guy” who made his bones at GE, where the ultrasound business quadrupled and clinical systems jumped some 40 percent under his tenure.
Elliott also elaborated on the recent news that Cordis Corp. will be exiting the stent business, saying that he was surprised by the decision but called the Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) subsidiary’s decision “an upside for 2012.”
“If you look at the size of the markets, the Cordis portion is probably about $400 million or so,” he said. “However, the part people are missing is that there’s another $400 million market in guides, bare metal, diagnostics and so on. It’s tougher to get at but it’s there. It’s a rare gift… You don’t get opportunities like that very often, so we’re doing what we need to do to get that business.”
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.
Yesterday, BSX got a “Buy” rating from an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, a regional brokerage and investment banking firm.
The Massachusetts Medical Devices Journal is the online journal of the medical devices industry in the Commonwealth and New England, providing day-to-day coverage of the devices that save lives, the people behind them, and the burgeoning trends and developments within the industry.
