It only took a couple of billion-dollar transactions in the second quarter (Q2) of 2023 to push med-tech dealmaking values above all other recent years. Despite the surge in value, the volume of deals is level with other quarters.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been exceptionally active in the mergers and acquisitions space for the past 18 months, but Congress might soon amplify these agencies’ ability to suppress these transactions. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who chairs the competition subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a recent hearing that vertical mergers have flown largely off the enforcement radar, a problem that Congress could address by several means, including by providing the FTC with a heftier budget to pursue these cases.
As quicker, more accurate ways to detect dementia becomes ever more urgent, Cumulus Neuroscience Ltd. has teamed up with the Universities of Bath and Bristol in the U.K. to further develop the Fastball electroencephalogram (EEG) test, a diagnostic test for earlier detection of Alzheimer’s dementia. With one in three people born in the U.K. today likely to develop dementia at some point in their lives, early diagnosis and treatment are essential for them to plan for their future.
With a bruising battle with its largest investor barely behind it, Masimo Corp.’s preliminary second quarter results came in nearly $100 million below consensus, putting management in an even tougher position now that it has two new investor-aligned board members. Share price plunged from $147.16 to $110 following the after-hours announcement on Monday. By the closing bell on Tuesday, shares had recovered modestly to $117.73.
Rockwell Medical Inc. has acquired the hemodialysis concentrates business of Evoqua Water Technologies LLC for $11 million up front in cash plus two $2.5 million milestone payments at 12- and 24-months following the close of the deal.
The European Commission (EC) fined Illumina Inc. a record €432 million (US$476 million) for closing the acquisition of Grail Inc. before receiving regulatory approval. It is the highest fine ever imposed on a company by the EC for completing a deal without its consent. Grail was fined €1,000. The companies were found to be in breach of EU merger control rules.
Coloplast A/S agreed to acquire wound care company Kerecis Ehf for up to $1.3 billion in a bid to strengthen its presence in the high-growth, U.S.-centric biologics segment. Kerecis has developed a technology which uses intact fish skin from Atlantic cod to treat chronic wounds. It has around 5% share of the U.S. biologics market.
Five months after raising $45 million, Lunaphore Technologies SA reported its consent to be acquired by Bio-Techne Corp., a reagents and instruments manufacturer for the diagnostic market. This acquisition by the Nasdaq-listed bio-tech giant, “will enable us to begin a worldwide commercial rollout of our products and automated spatial biology technology,” Ata Tuna Ciftlik, co-founder and CEO of Lunaphore Technologies, told BioWorld. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed. This acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2023.
Resmed Inc. has acquired Somnoware Inc., a privately held developer of respiratory care diagnostics software, for an undisclosed price. The deal is Resmed’s third software acquisition in the past year, having snapped up German software-as-a-service (SaaS) maker Medifox Dan GmbH for $1 billion in June 2022 and Mementor GmbH last August.
RSS
