
A burst of potential acquisitions and consolidations occurred on April 28th in the medical device world, the largest being Abbott Laboratories‘ deal to acquire St. Jude Medical Inc. The deal is for $25 billion dollars and would bring together two of the leaders in cardiac-related medical devices. It allows Abbott to boost its medical-device sector to compete with competitors Medtronic PLC and Boston Scientific Corp.
In particular, according to press releases, St. Jude has a strong portfolio in heart failure devices, atrial fibrillation, and cardiac rhythm management which will complement Abbott’s portfolio of cardiac intervention devices and transcatheter mitral repair. Certain medical devices produced by both companies can be used to alleviate the burden of cardiovascular disease, where more than 40% of adults are expected to experience some sort of cardiovascular disease by 2030.
According to Abbott’s Chairman and CEO, Miles D. White,
“The combined business will have a powerful pipeline ready to deliver next-generation medical technologies and offer improved efficiencies for health care systems around the world.”
However, investors do not appears nearly as confident as Abbott’s stock fell by nearly 6 percent after the acquisition.
Abbott further has a pending deal to acquire the diagnostics company Alere Inc. for $5.8 billion. Other deals included Sanofi SA’s offer to purchase Medivation Inc. and AbbVie Inc.‘s offer to purchase Stemcentrx Inc. These consolidations appear to be attempts to improve negotiating power of the companies with hospitals.