Just weeks after announcing it would “step up” its acquisitions this year, Medtronic said it will shell out up to $585 million to buy privately held partner CathWorks, which focuses on coronary artery disease and its treatment.
At the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in early January, Medtronic Chief Financial Officer Thierry Piéton said that after boosting day-to-day operations, the medtech giant was in a position to boost M&A this year, and it was “going to step up in that area.”
Less than a month later, and that is ringing true with a new deal to buy out Israel-based CathWorks. The acquisition is valued at up to $585 million, “with potential undisclosed earn-out payments post-acquisition” also in the mix, according to a Tuesday, Feb. 3, statement.
The buyout spawned from an original 2022 partnership that included co-promotion of its FFRangio system in the U.S., Europe and Japan, where it is commercially available, the company said in a press release.
The FFRangio platform gives a comprehensive physiological assessment of a patient’s entire coronary tree using routine coronary angiograms (X-rays). The company said clinical evidence demonstrates excellent diagnostic accuracy and promising clinical outcomes when compared with wire-based FFR.
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“Through our co-promotion agreement, we’ve seen how CathWorks can disrupt the traditional wire-based FFR segment and leverage the power of data and AI to deliver innovative solutions that assist physicians at every step of a patient’s journey, from diagnosis to treatment,” Jason Weidman, a Medtronic senior vice president and president of its coronary and renal denervation business, said in a statement. “This acquisition allows Medtronic to transform the cath lab with a technology that provides real-time data, informs individualized treatment approaches, and drives new standards of care.”
The platform is touted as the only angiography-derived system that delivers FFR values for the entire coronary tree. Additionally, it provides intraprocedural optimization tools, including assessment of the physiological impact of lesion treatment and interactive sizing tools to measure lesion dimensions.
The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of April, pending clearance from the Federal Trade Commission. CathWorks will then be folded into the Medtronic structure.
