...maybe it is time to lift our transatlantic heads up and take in the view of the rest of the planet. While we run back and forth to Europe, clogging our arteries with triple-cream brie, a whole developing world chock full o’ unmet medical needs and experiencing enviable GDP growth goes largely untapped by emerging med tech companies.
Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) has completed the purchase of California-based Ardian, a developer of catheter-based therapies for hypertension treatment. Medtronic paid $800 million in cash as announced in a previous agreement and will provide additional performance-based milestone payments through Medtronic's fiscal year 2015. Before the acquisition, Medtronic held an 11.2 percent ownership stake.
Wanna buy a medical device startup? A down payment would be nice. As competition for medical device acquisitions heats up, Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT) and Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) are redeeming early bets on promising startups.
Ardian Inc. is a startup based in Mountain View, California. Yet its technology, a catheter-based treatment for hypertension, was created by Minnesota entrepreneurs, funded by a Minnesota venture capital firm, tested by a Minnesota hospital, and recently bought by a Minnesota medical device company for at least $800 million. Are you as disturbed about this as I am?
Almost one in five hospital patients was injured by their care, according to a study of 10 U.S. hospitals published in the New England Journal of Medicine that found little improvement from industry and government efforts to improve safety, reports Bloomberg Businessweek.
Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT) is a company in transition as it seeks higher growth in China and new therapies like transcatheter heart valves while trying to "protect and optimize" its core cardiac rhythm disease management (CRDM) business. On Tuesday, the Fridley, Minnesota, medical device maker said its profits sank 34 percent in the fiscal second quarter from a year ago. So it lowered its fiscal 2011 profit and sales forecasts.
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.
It wasn't the "big one" I wrote about last week, but Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT) still is proving itself a prolific deal maker. The company based in Fridley, Minnesota, said it will pay at least $800 million to purchase Ardian Inc., a firm developing a catheter-based treatment for high blood pressure.
Ardian is developing a catheter system that disrupts the sympathetic nerves in the kidneys, which will in turn reduce blood pressure. Clinical trials are expected next week.
