ARTICLE SUMMARY:
With Thoratec being acquired by St. Jude Medical for $4.3 billion cash, and HeartWare announcing an all-stock, $480M-plus deal to acquire percutaneous mitral valve technology company Valtech Cardio, there are likely to be big changes ahead in the typically insular left ventricular assist device (LVAD) arena. Interestingly, these changes are coming at a time when LVAD market prospects are finally taking an upward turn.
The huge and vastly underserved heart failure (HF) clinical space has become a prime growth target of leading cardiovascular device companies, and collecting the breadth of technologies necessary to be a major player in HF is driving an uptick in M&A activity in this arena.
