Hospital bed and equipment provider Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HRC) has acquired Aspen Surgical Products for $400 million to broaden its reach in the North American and European surgical markets, the company said Tuesday.
Aspen Surgical, based in Michigan, manufactures surgical consumer and specialty medical products like scalpels, fluid collection products, wound care dressings and a variety of other operating room disposables and instruments. The company has annual revenue of about $120 million and is expected to add to Hill-Rom’s fiscal year earnings by two cents per share.
Use of disposable medical supplies is on an upswing as facilities adopt stricter infection prevention methods, according to market research from Espicom.
“This acquisition further expands our global portfolio beyond our core franchise with a business that is immediately accretive to earnings per share and adds recurring revenue to our existing surgical platform,” said President and CEO John Greisch.
Hill-Rom’s last acquisition was Volker, a Germany-based maker of hospital bed frames, surfaces and furniture, back in February.
The Batesville, Indiana, company reported third-quarter revenue of $406.5 million, an increase of 5.6 percent from the third quarter of last year, but lowered its outlook for 2012. Shares were up .5 percent at close on Tuesday.
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.
[Photo from jannoon028]
