Acquisitive Boston Scientific is making deals again with a major investment play into a private medtech with an option to snap up exclusive rights to its Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) system.
First up, the investment deal sees the medtech giant laying out $1.5 billion in return for a 34% equity stake in MiRus. MiRus is working on a range of biomaterials, implants and procedural solutions for the treatment of cardiovascular and orthopedic diseases.
The company is also focused on its SIEGEL Balloon Expandable TAVR system. This has caught the eye of Boston Scientific, with the company securing an “exclusive option to acquire” the MiRus TAVR system, subject to additional payments and hitting certain milestones, according to a May 19 statement.
That payment would be made, should Boston Scientific take up the option, via “additional aggregate cash payments totaling $3 billion,” which would see the company take 100% ownership of the TAVR business.
MiRus’ investigational device is designed to be around half the size of TAVR delivery sheaths currently on the market. The idea is that this could reduce the risk of vascular injuries and make it more commercially attractive, should it gain a future approval.
A TAVR is a nonsurgical procedure to replace the aortic valve without open-heart surgery and works via a doctor making a small incision in an artery and inserting a small, hollow tube.
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The deal comes a year after Boston Scientific pulled its own transcatheter aortic heart valve platform Acurate neo2 implant and its successor, the Acurate Prime, from the worldwide market.
The company also said it will no longer pursue an approval in the U.S., following setbacks in a clinical study. This deal, should it take up, would help fill that TAVR void.
“The SIEGEL valve is a promising technology and has received enthusiastic feedback from physician investigators for its less invasive delivery, nickel-free construct, precise placement resulting from a lack of foreshortening and excellent hemodynamics,” said Jay Yadav, M.D., founder and chief executive officer, MiRus, in a release.
“This collaborative relationship with Boston Scientific alongside the exceptional capabilities of our Atlanta-based team can further accelerate our progress towards broad accessibility for patients and physicians for what we believe will be a transformational treatment.”
Boston Scientific started the year with a bang when it bought out thrombectomy specialist Penumbra in deal valued at $14.5 billion.
This gave the company access to a broad range of devices including mechanical thrombectomy products to remove blood clots causing blockages as well as a vascular portfolio that aims to stop blood flow to control hemorrhaging and bleeding or to close blood vessels.
Just before that deal, Boston Scientific also snapped up urology medtech Valencia Technologies for an undisclosed price.
