In what undoubtedly came as a response to Medtronic plc’s recently reported Small Annuli Randomized to Evolut or SAPIEN Trial trial results that showed a decisive advantage for its Evolut transcatheter aortic valve replacement system in patients with a small aortic annulus, Edwards Lifesciences Corp. reported the results from an analysis of data from its Placement of Aortic Transcatheter Valve trials of the Sapien 3 valves showing “excellent clinical outcomes and valve durability irrespective of the patient’s annulus size or sex.”

Edwards Lifesciences Corp. is selling its critical care product group to Becton Dickison and Co. (BD) for $4.2 billion in cash, forgoing its previously announced plans to spin off the unit into a separate business. The transaction is expected to close before the end of the calendar year.

New York-based Cleerly Labs Inc., petitioned several U.S. Medicare administrative contractors for coverage of the use of the company’s artificial intelligence product for analysis of CT coronary arteries to evaluate the disease burden of plaque.

Surmodics Inc. reported plans to be acquired by private equity firm Golder, Thoma, Cressey, Rauner Inc. for $43 a share for a total equity valuation of approximately $627 million. The per-share acquisition price represents a 41.1% premium to Surmodics’ 30-trading day volume-weighted average closing price through May 28, 2024.

Nordson Corp. said it will buy Atrion Corp. for $460 per share in cash, representing a total equity value of approximately $815 million. The transaction enterprise value reflects a multiple of 20.2 times Atrion's 2023 EBITDA, and the $460 per share price represents a 15% premium to Atrion's 90-day average daily volume-weighted average stock price.

Volta Medical SAS reported positive results from the Tailored-AF study which compared its artificial intelligence software-guided ablation procedure in combination with pulmonary vein isolation to a conventional anatomical ablation targeting PVI alone, to treat persistent atrial fibrillation.

Boston Scientific Corp. is hoping to help change European guidelines on the use of intravascular imaging during percutaneous coronary intervention procedures, Emile Mehanna, medical affairs and medical education director, interventional cardiology, EMEA, told BioWorld.

Elixir Medical Corp. reported positive 12-month clinical data from the Desyne BDS Plus randomized controlled trial which evaluated its Desyne BDS plus system, a triple drug-eluting coronary implant with site-specific antithrombotic therapeutic coating, against a contemporary, durable polymer drug-eluting stent in the treatment of de novo native coronary artery lesions.

A renewed focus on telehealth and telemedicine may be pumping new life into remote patient monitoring for heart failure, which seems to be the case for the Cardiomems device by Abbott Inc.

The major players in electrophysiology – Boston Scientific Corp., Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic plc, Abbot Laboratories – showed up in force at the 2024 Heart Rhythm Society annual meeting in Boston May 16-19 to tout their pulsed field ablation devices and study results.