Today’s Acquisitions Changing the Look of Tomorrow’s Cardiovascular Market

Mergers and acquisitions have played a large role in the evolving medical industry during 2014 in everything from the diagnostic laboratory to the orthopedic market. This is something we expect to continue as we move into 2015. In the cardiovascular market in particular there are two large

pending acquisitions and a possible third that have the potential to impact customers and the market as a whole.

Medtronic and CovidienMedtronic and CovidienMedtronic, second only to Johnson & Johnson in the medical device market, is entering the final stages of acquiring Covidien to complete one of the most significant buys in today’s market. Covidien itself has made some major moves within the last few years to extend their product lines. These acquisitions have very little overlap in Medtronic’s current product lines. As a result, Medtronic’s purchase of Covidien stands to gain the company ground in several areas including vascular therapy. This will allow Medtronic to expand their arterial vascular product line and include additional venous and neurovascular therapies.

Philips and VolcanoPhilips recently received a unanimous approval from Volcano’s board to proceed with the purchase of their company. Philips, which manufactures everything from household electronics to x-ray machines, has been looking to expand their healthcare business for some time. Volcano currently leads the market in IVUS and FFR technology. The integration of Volcano’s technologies into the Philips’ state of the art cath lab systems will allow Philips to set themselves even farther apart from the competition. The interesting twist here is that Volcano currently has an ongoing collaboration with GE to provide an integrated Volcano IVUS and GE cath lab system. Will this relationship continue long term, or will GE be left on the outside looking in?

The Future of CordisIt was rumored last year that Johnson & Johnson was looking to sell the Cordis branch of their company. Over the past few years, Cordis has all but removed themselves from the cath lab market. Without having a follow-up, next generation, drug-eluting stent to replace their first-to-market Cypher, Cordis has taken a huge step back in this market. However, Cordis still has a full portfolio in the peripheral vascular side of the market and it wouldn’t be surprising if an outside company steps up and makes this purchase in order to get a jump in the U.S. market.