Stryker (Kalamazoo, Michigan) is strengthening its position in the orthopedics sector with its acquisition of Orthovita (Malvern, Pennsylvania). The agreement calls for Stryker to acquire all of the common stock of Orthovita for $3.85 per share cash which is about $316 million. The share price represents a premium of 41% from Orthovita's closing price Friday. It will also assume $12 million in debt held by Orthovita. (Medical Device Daily)
A couple of weeks ago I interviewed PixelOptics' president/CEO Ron Blum, about a technology called emPower, a device that could eventually replace bifocals. Now there's one thing you need to know about the interview. Blum is one of those people that med-tech journalists just love to talk to. He’s honest, upfront and has a sort of passion about his product that you just don’t see that often. He’s not regurgitating facts, or bedazzling you with technical terms that can sometimes go straight over your head. But rather, Blum is a master of his craft. And if emPower is anything like its...
OncoSec Medical (San Diego) isn't following the traditional path of a startup. While most small med-tech companies are often private when they begin, OncoSec went for the public route. The company, which is a little more than two months old, said that its drug-device combo for treating solid tumors feels like a sure thing and because of that, the firm wanted to start off public. (Medical Device Daily)
Corindus Vascular Robotics (Natick, Massachusetts) is moving into its CorPath PRECISE clinical trial with a bit more confidence, after favorable results from a previous trial conducted in South America last year, were published in the April 2011 issue of Cardiovascular Interventions, the journal of the American College of Cardiology (Washington). (Medical Device Daily)
Since 2003, med-tech startup EBR Systems (Sunnyvale, California) has worked tirelessly to develop an alternative to cardiac pacing leads. That hard work and time invested, is starting to pay off, as the firm is saying that its wireless cardiac stimulation system, dubbed WiCS, has been implanted in the first human patients in a European trial to assess the safety and efficacy of the device. (Medical Device Daily)
Medtronic's (Minneapolis) Ablation Frontiers (Carlsbad, California) could face a potential setback in a quest to gain significant share in the atrial fibrillation (AF) market, according to results of a study abstract that was published on the National Library of Medicine's website. (Medical Device Daily)
It's official. Johnson & Johnson (J&J; New Brunswick, New Jersey) is making a move to acquire Synthes (Solothurn, Switzerland) for $21.3 billion, making it one of the largest med-tech deals in history. After heavy speculation and Synthes coming out last week and releasing a brief statement that J&J had been in talks with the firm regarding a possible merger, the med-tech giant broke its silence today and said it was initiating acquisition plans (Medical Device Daily, April 19, 2011). (Medical Device Daily)
