Med-tech deal values continued their upward swing, increasing nearly 90% from last year. Med-tech M&A volume and value remained in a slump compared to the previous two years, though values are higher than 2020.
In August 2023, med-tech firms raised a total of $1.88 billion through 27 transactions, an increase of 94.12% from the $971 million raised in July. Value is down 42.83%, however, from the $3.3 billion raised in August 2022. The volume of med-tech financings is tracking at an average of 41 per month in 2023, down from an average of 43 per month in 2022, 59 per month through 2021 and 60 per month in 2020.
Amsterdam-based Royal Philips NV reported that it has come to terms with customers and end users of its respiratory equipment to the tune of $479 million, which will reimburse for the cost of these systems. The problem for the company is that the settlement does not affect any personal injury cases, and thus represents only a partial closure of a controversy that has dogged the company for several years.
Exor NV’s acquisition of a 15% stake in Royal Philips NV for approximately €2.6 billion (US$2.8 billion), is a boon for the health care tech company which has been suffering in recent years on the back of a product recall controversy. Netherlands-based diversified holding company Exor will become Philips’ biggest shareholder, and said it is committed to being a “long-term minority investor,” as it grows its investment in the health care sector.
The Vanta device by Medtronic plc, provides relief from pain for thousands of patients, but the Vanta might also feel the pain when the patient is undergoing cardioversion. According to a field safety notice from Dublin-based Medtronic, two patients in Europe have undergone explant procedures for the device due to damage sustained during cardioversion, but the company urges physicians to pay heed to the labeled indication, which recommends that the device be temporarily reprogrammed to reduce the risk of damage to the device, an action that Medtronic indicated should ward off any such issues.
Royal Philips NV and Masimo Corp. received U.S. FDA clearance that allows the activation of Sedline brain function monitoring, regional oximetry and carbon dioxide measurements in Philips Intellivue MX750 and MX850 patient monitors, which will streamline decision-making for clinicians by eliminating the need for separate pieces of monitoring equipment. The integrated equipment can help clinicians more quickly assess and monitor cerebral oxygenation, anesthetic sedation and patient respiratory performance using the same monitor.
Among the many companies presenting data at the EuroPCR conference in Paris, several late breaking trials from heavy hitters Medtronic plc, Royal Phillips NV and Edwards Lifesciences Corp. stood out.
Amsterdam-based Royal Philips NV has posted the data from the complete set of third-party testing of the polyester-based polyurethane (PE-PUR) sound abatement foam used in its first-generation CPAP and other devices, and the news is not good for the U.S. FDA. These third-party evaluations have concluded that the foam used in these first-generation devices is unlikely to exert any “appreciable harm” to patients, a conclusion that runs directly counter to the FDA’s implicit argument about the foam.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reported that Royal Philips NV will pay more than $62 million in connection with “irregularities in the medical device industry” related to its Chinese subsidiaries. The charges arise from actions that occurred between 2014 and 2019 from sales of medical diagnostic equipment in China.
Med-tech companies are facing a new reality of high interest rates, inflation, bank failures, and geopolitical turmoil that are impacting financing and M&A opportunities. To secure finance and attract partnership deals they must keep their product simple, focus on proof of concept and ensure that it has quality, delegates at the LSX World Congress in London heard during a panel presentation.