A Medical Device Daily

Angiotech Pharmaceuticals (Vancouver, British Columbia), a specialty pharmaceutical and medical device company, said it has begun a $165 million tender offer to buy back of its outstanding notes.

Angiotech also reported yesterday that it is creating a new subsidiary, Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Interventions (API), with an investment of up to $300 million from Ares Management and New Leaf Venture Partners. The company said the closing of the tender offer is conditioned upon the closing of the investment in API, and shareholder approval of that investment.

Angiotech said the new subsidiary would hold most of its assets outside of its Taxus coronary stent business, a product sold by Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) for which Angiotech provides the paclitaxel drug coating.

Boston Sci is facing increased competition in the drug-eluting stent market, with Abbott (Abbott Park, Illinois) having just received FDA approval of its Xience V everolimus-eluting coronary stent, making it the second of the 2.0 family of drug-eluting stents to win marketing approval in the U.S. (Medical Device Daily, July 7, 2008).

Angiotech's tender offer will expire at midnight, EDT, Aug. 22, unless extended or earlier terminated. The company said note holders must validly tender and not validly withdraw their notes on or before 5 p.m., EDT, on July 18 unless extended, to receive the applicable total tender offer consideration, which includes the applicable early tender premium, plus accrued and unpaid interest. Holders who validly tender their notes after the early tender date and on or before the expiration date and whose notes are accepted for purchase will receive a payment equal to the applicable total tender offer consideration less the applicable early tender premium, plus accrued and unpaid interest.

Notes tendered on or before 5 p.m., EDT, on July 18, may be withdrawn at any time on or before the withdrawal date. Notes tendered after the withdrawal date but before the expiration date may not be withdrawn, except in the limited circumstances described in the offer to purchase. The settlement date is expected to be Aug. 26, Angiotech said.

Angiotech said it may purchase in the tender offer an additional amount of notes not to exceed 2% of the aggregate principal amount of each series of notes outstanding without amending or extending the tender offer or may elect to increase the size of the tender offer beyond such a 2% increase, subject to applicable legal requirements described in the offer to purchase.