St. Jude Medical completed its acquisition of Thoratec on Oct. 8, expanding its heart failure business and adding products such as the HeartMate II left ventricular assist device.
The announcement occurred one day after Thoratec’s shareholders approved the $3.3 billion deal. The companies had entered into a definitive agreement in July.
Thoratec shareholders will receive $63.50 in cash for each Thoratec share they owned. St. Jude Medical expects the deal to be accretive to adjusted earnings per share next year.
More than 21,000 patients have been implanted with the HeartMate II device, which is FDA-approved for bridge-to-transplantation and destination therapy. More than 365 medical centers in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific, Australia, Canada and Latin America implant the devices.
In September, Thoratec issued an urgent medical device correction letter alerting hospitals to monitor the expiration date of the backup battery contained in the HeartMate II device.
Thoratec also has an investigational chronic mechanical circulatory support device called the HeartMate 3 that is intended for advanced heart failure patients. A clinical trial is underway to evaluate the device for destination therapy and bridge-to-transplantation. The study, which is currently enrolling patients, compares the HeartMate II and HeartMate 3 devices.
Thoratec expects the HeartMate 3 device to be approved in Europe by the end of 2015.
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.