Dive Brief:
- Solventum said Thursday it has struck a deal to buy wound care company Acera Surgical for $725 million in cash.
- The deal, which features up to $125 million in milestones, will give Solventum control of a portfolio of synthetic soft tissue repair products. Stifel analysts said in a note to investors that they believe the synthetic market “is growing at a double-digit pace.”
- Acera is Solventum’s first acquisition since it spun out of 3M. Solventum executives made M&A part of their focus after selling the company’s purification and filtration business to Thermo Fisher Scientific for $4.1 billion.
Dive Insight:
Acera’s portfolio centers on Restrata, a fully resorbable, electrospun fiber matrix that resembles human extracellular matrix. Applied to hard-to-heal, complex wounds, the synthetic fibers support cell ingrowth, retention and differentiation. Acera expects to generate sales of around $90 million this year.
Solventum has identified the products as a good fit for its portfolio and capabilities. The company plans to use its global footprint, specialized wound care sales force and leadership in negative pressure wound therapy to accelerate adoption of Restrata products. Acera’s products will slot into an advanced wound care unit that accounted for 22% of Solventum’s sales over the first nine months of 2025.
Stifel analysts said the deal shows advanced wound care innovation “is clearly a priority at Solventum,” adding that the acquired technology fits nicely with the company’s recent Peel-and-Place extended wear wound dressing launch and addresses a similar call point. BTIG analysts said in a note to investors that Solventum expects advanced wound care to be the main growth driver at its medical surgical business.
Buying Acera moves the MedSurg portfolio into a U.S. synthetic tissue matrix market that Stifel analysts said is worth around $900 million. Both sets of analysts said Acera serves the acute care market, rather than what the Stifel team called the “reimbursement-challenged outpatient post-acute setting.” BTIG analysts said the deal could be negative for Integra LifeSciences, which competes in the inpatient market.
The acquisition marks the start of another phase of the strategy that Solventum executives outlined after spinning out of 3M. Solventum CFO Wayde McMillan told attendees at a Stifel event this month that the team’s initial focus was on paying down the debt it inherited from 3M. Selling the purification and filtration business to Thermo Fisher enabled Solventum to reduce its debt.
Solventum hired Rachel Ellingson as chief strategy and corporate development officer shortly after inking the deal with Thermo Fisher, adding an executive with M&A experience to its C-suite.
“We are building a strong pipeline and we’re getting ready to start to deploy some of that balance sheet strength,” McMillan said. “We do feel the inorganic part of our strategy is really important.”
The CFO added that Solventum has a scale advantage over many of its competitors, and expects to be able to maximize value out of its acquisitions.
