Dive Brief:
- Medtronic said Friday it has completed the $550 million takeover of neurovascular technology company Scientia Vascular.
- The deal, which Medtronic disclosed in March, covers guidewire technologies for stroke that are designed to equip physicians to access hard-to-reach parts of the brain.
- Buying Scientia will enable “every neurovascular procedure to start with Medtronic,” CEO Geoff Martha said on an earnings call with investors this month.
Dive Insight:
Medtronic CFO Thierry Piéton explained the rationale for buying Scientia at a Leerink event in March. The company sells thrombectomy devices such as Liberant, which U.S. physicians first used commercially to remove a clot in November. However, Medtronic’s portfolio lacked a differentiated access guidewire.
Filling that gap in the portfolio is “really critical” for Medtronic’s thrombectomy business, the CFO said. The importance of selling a portfolio that includes an access guidewire reflects the need to treat strokes quickly to minimize lasting damage. Those pressures affect device selection.
“Because of how crucial it is to have access as quickly as possible, the access equipment actually dictates what equipment is going to be used afterwards to treat the problem,” Piéton said. “So for us it generates a lot of synergy.”
Medtronic sales reps will promote Scientia’s guidewire alongside its existing thrombectomy products. There is overlap between the two companies’ customers, Piéton said, but Scientia also sells to some clients that do not use Medtronic’s thrombectomy devices.
The mix of benefits of the acquisition makes Scientia “the perfect example” of Medtronic’s approach to dealmaking, Piéton said. The CFO named Scientia as the “exact type” of acquisition that Medtronic wants to execute.
Medtronic disclosed the Scientia deal weeks after agreeing to buy CathWorks for up to $585 million. In May, Medtronic also announced the acquisition of SPR Therapeutics for about $650 million.
The deals are part of a shift in the company’s strategy. Medtronic is “going back on offense in M&A,” Piéton said, and sees deals in the $1 billion to $3 billion range as the sweet spot for its takeovers.
