While other large med-tech companies are slimming their portfolios, Boston Scientific Corp. plans to beef its up considerably with the acquisition of Apollo Endosurgery Inc. for $10 per share for the 41.7 million shares outstanding or $417 million. Including the debt assumed, the all-cash deal has an enterprise value of $615 million. The $10 per share price represents a 67% premium to the Nov. 28, 2022, $6 close for Apollo shares. The companies expect the transaction to close in the first half of 2023.

In an interview with BioWorld, Ceros Financial Services CEO Mark Goldwasser predicted significant changes in the financing market for med-tech companies in the coming year. While special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deals are not anticipated to return to 2022 levels, Goldwasser expects “we’re going to see a lot of transactions out of big strategics” and a rally in the equity market in the first half of 2023.

The 2022 Vascular Interventional Advances (VIVA) medical meeting, which concluded on Nov. 3 in Las Vegas, focused on advances in interventional cardiology and devices to improve vascular health with the expected studies comparing drug-eluting balloons, new stents and less invasive procedures. One Boston Scientific Corp. presentation put the rest into context, however, with one of the most critical advances in cardiology, enrollment in the Drug-Eluting Registry: Real World Treatment of Lesions in the Peripheral Vasculature (ELEGANCE) registry.

The burden of peripheral artery disease is enormous, but clinicians are often stuck deciding whether to treat their patients with critical limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) by endovascular means rather than conventional bypass surgery.

Boston Scientific Corp. and Abbott Laboratories continue to parry over clinical trials comparing the latter’s Amplatzer Amulet with Boston Scientific’s Watchman in sealing the heart’s left atrial appendage (LAA) to prevent ischemic stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation (Afib). In one of five presentations at the 34th Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics annual scientific symposium in Boston in mid-September, Abbott said device-related thrombosis or peri-device leak more frequently preceded strokes in patients with Watchman compared to those with Abbott’s Amplatzer Amulet device.

The 2022 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics annual meeting highlighted mostly positive outcomes from major trials conducted by nearly all the big players in the cardiac device market. Here’s our round-up of the meeting’s high points, with updates from Abbott Laboratories, Abiomed Inc., Boston Scientific Corp., Edwards Lifesciences Corp., Inari Medical Inc., Medtronic plc and Recor Medical Inc.

Boston Scientific Corp.’s Sentinel cerebral protection system missed its primary endpoint of reduced stroke in the PROTECTED TAVR clinical trial. The data did, however, show a significant reduction in risk of disabling stroke in the immediate days after a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure.

The use of leads for cardiac electrophysiology devices has proven nothing short of controversial in the past, usually an artifact of efforts to craft ever-skinnier leads that won’t disrupt the blood vessels into which they are placed. Dublin-based Medtronic plc is working to avoid these problems with leads without sacrificing the advantages of leads via its EV ICD system, which soundly passed the test in a study presented at this year’s edition of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) annual scientific sessions.

Boston Scientific Corp. acquired privately held Obisidio Inc., adding the company’s gel embolic material (GEM) technology to its portfolio. GEM is a ready-to-use, semi-solid material that conforms to the vasculature in which it is placed to immediately obstruct or reduce blood flow to a tumor or abnormality or stop hemorrhaging.