Covidien acquires Israeli maker of hernia mesh placement device

Covidien ($COV) has snatched up an Israeli startup that developed a device to place hernia mesh laparoscopically.

Neither side is disclosing financial terms, but in its announcement of the deal, PolyTouch Medical notes that the companies are already connected. In fact, its PatchAssist product "was further developed" to become Covidien's AccuMesh positioning system, PolyTouch said. AccuMesh launched commercially in the U.S. a month ago, and it is designed to place Covidien's Parietex mesh during minimally invasive ventral hernia repair.

FDA clearance (and "rapid development" of the product) paved the way for Covidien to buy PolyTouch, the acquired company's founder and CEO Ofek Levin said in a statement.

PolyTouch touts the announcement as a vote of confidence for the company, which Levin, Arik Levy and Lena Levin launched barely three years ago after winning the BizTEC07 Israel national entrepreneur competition. As is often the case, a subset of medical device startups comes out of the gate focused on a single product, with the idea of seeking a larger corporate partner. That partner will fuel the product's development and eventually buy the technology and the startup itself once crucial milestones are met.

Covidien's fiscal 2012 second-quarter device sales grew 7%, the company said recently, driven in part by new products and higher sales volume.

- here's the release

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