Showing posts with label Boston Scientific. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boston Scientific. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Science Report (NYSE: BSX)

NEW YORK- Shares of Boston Scientific the developer of medical devices that are used in a range of interventional medical specialties reported Q3 net income of $190 million or 12 cents a share with revenue coming in at $1.9 billion. The company was quick to point out that net income would have been $296 million without restructuring and impairment charges. However, when examining their financial statements this does not appear to be true because the charges appear to be a regular occurrence as opposed to a one time charge. The company expects to earn adjusted profit of $0.63 and $0.66 but 0.77 to 0.81 loss per on a GAAP basis.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Milk..Check, Eggs...Check, Corevalve...Check

Let the bidding begin.

You just know Medtronic's $1.03 billion buying spree is only the beginning, not the end, of the long-anticipated land grab around the percutaneous valve replacement field with its two major sub-markets: aortic and mitral valve devices. There has been a lag of several years since Edwards Lifesciences did the first major deal in the space, acquiring aortic player Percutaneous Valve Technology (PVT) in late 2003. But the promise of the market has continued to grow as investment remained active, technology improved, and the competition increaed.

Give Medtronic credit for the executing the old "shock and awe" routine with perfection, by picking up a pair of percutaneous players in quick succession CoreValve Inc. and Ventor Technologies Ltd., but battles aren't won with the biggest strike, no matter how impressive.

Consider the opportunities in the aortic market alone. Industry data suggests the cases of aortic stenosis will hit 4.6 million in the year 2030, almost double the cases in 2000. But the real growth comes in treating the roughly one-third or one-half of patients who currently couldn't survive an open-heart procedure.

It's that potential that's pulling Edwards Lifesciences, St. Jude, and now, most vigorously, Medtronic into building armamentariums of devices to tackle both percutaneous valve replacement markets. This was fantastic news for CoreValve and Ventor investors as the folks at Dow Jones Venture Capital Dispatch can attest.

For Medtronic, these deals represent not just an investment in technology building because in CoreValve, it is getting a company that is already competing aggressively in the European aortic market, where CoreValve's smaller-sized system is running neck-and-neck with long-time leader, Edwards.

But just as we saw in the atrial fibrillation market recently, additional acquisitions are the sincerest form of flattery. (Medtronic, once again, aggressively snapped up two of the more promising business, CryoCath and Ablation Frontiers.)

So we turned to our colleagues at Medtech Insight for the goods on what percutaneous aortic valve companies might be the target of future acquisitions and topic of future headlines. For the full story on these aortic players, please check out the January issue of Medtech Insight for the technical and operational challenges facing the percutanous aortic valve replacement field. (And for those eager to understand the potential in the percutaneous MITRAL valve replacement industry, feel free to check out Medtech Insight's cover story in the current issue here.)


And here's the field of potential acquisition targets...

Direct Flow Medical Inc. Direct Flow Medical's Aortic Valve Prosthesis expects to initiate first-in-human trials by May of this year and obtain a CE Mark by the end of this year, enabling it to possibly have a device on the market by 2010. The Aortic Valve Prosthesis consists of a trileaflet bovin pericardium valve encased in a tapered, conformable polyester fabric cuff. It contains no metal, making it unique among the offerings.
CAPITAL RAISED: $35 million
EXTREMELY HAPPY INVESTORS (EHIs): Foundation Medical Partners, EDF Venturers, New Leaf Venture Partners, Spray Venture Partners, Vantage Point Partners and ePlanet Ventures. Oh, and a little company called Johnson & Johnson Development Corp.

Sadra Medical Inc. Sadra recently completed first-in-human studies in Europe on its Lotus valve system., a repositionable, retrievable, self-expanding transcatheter aortic valve. The company expects to begin a European feasibility study in the second half of this year.
RAISED: $20 million since 2003.
EHIs: Oakwood Medical, Onset Ventures, Pequot Ventures, SV Life Sciences. Boston Scientific invested in 2006.

JenaValve Technology Gmbh JenaValve hopes to have a CE Mark for its foldable porcine valve by the end of this year.
RAISED: $20 million since the start of 2006.
EHIs: Atlas Venture, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners and NeoMed.

That's just a sampling, but keep an eye out for AorTech International, Heart Leaflet Technologies Inc., Cormove, and Advanced Bio Prosthetic Surfaces Ltd.

Image courtesy of flickr user lonelysandwich through a creative commons license.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

In Our Face

Take THAT, IN VIVO Blog.

Boston Scientific Corp., in an obvious thumbing of the nose to our suggestion that it wouldn’t be acquiring new companies any time soon, did just that.
The Natick, Mass. company reached an agreement to buy Remon Medical Technologies Inc., a privately held and venture-backed company based in Caesarea, Israel.

(We know. This is Karl Rove, not Jim Tobin.)

The acquisition shouldn't be seen as a sign that Boston Scientific is out shopping again. The company inherited a business agreement between Remon and Guidant Corp. established in 2004, long before Boston Scientific acquired the latter for $27 billion last year. Boston Scientific presumably is still busy fixing Guidant and identifying potential business to divest.

Boston Scientific clearly is excited at the potential of remote monitoring. CEO Jim Tobin singled out the former Guidant’s Latitude monitoring system in past speeches. Fred Colen, executive vice president of operations and technology, CRM and Chief Technology officer, said in a statement, “This acquisition reflects our commitment to being a leader in the CRM market through the introduction of innovative products and services for the benefit of physicians and their patients."

Read a lot more about Remon and other remote monitoring companies here. To sum up, the company has a platform to develop miniature devices capable of using ultrasound for a multitude of reasons from monitoring to drug delivery to tissue stimulation.

We may have more on the acquisition in the next START-UP. For now, here’s a quick Q&A with CEO Hezi Himelfarb and Terry McGuire, general partner at Polaris Venture Partners, one of Remon’s earlier investors. (Terms weren't disclosed, btw, but McGuire seemed very happy with the outcome.)

IN VIVO Blog: So who approached whom about merging?
McGuire: We already had relationship with Guidant that was going on a couple of years. And that turned out to be a prosperous relationship in the sense that we really developed some important technology that Boston Scientific recognized would continue to be important. And through the [Guidant] acquisition we got to know Boston Scientific even better and the time seemed right to talk about merging the companies.


IVB: Were there other opportunities for an exit? Did CardioMEMS failed IPO make a sale more appealing?
McGuire: CardioMEMS has a very different business model. CardioMEMS never entered into our relationship in any way. This acquisition was based on a relationship that had been evolving over two years. It’s what I would describe is a perfect baton pass. Here is this really innovative company and Boston Scientific saw what they could do with this. It was based on a long-term relationship. It really wasn’t based on the fact CardioMEMS did XYZ. Remon had a very strong balance sheet. It wasn’t like we needed to do anything.


IVB: Were there other options for Remon?
Himelfarb: We’ve been actually working on evaluating other [partnership] opportunities with other companies and there was a lot of interest in our technology because our technology is actually the only one today that provides real intrabody communication in a totally wireless manner …But eventually you can do such a deal with one company and luckily Boston Scientific was the one.


IVB: Where do you fit into BSX?
Himelfarb: Right now we are continuing exactly as we were. We continue to be in our facility which is located in Israel with the same employees, same management team. Everything actually remains the same. Then, probably again after a short-period of training and education we will find out what are the objectives. For now we are staying the same as before the acquisition.


IVB: Any changes within the next 12 months?
Himelfarb: I believe after they learn more about our technology they may do some changes in the focus of the company