C.R. Bard ($BCR) dove deep into the blood clotting business this week, announcing plans to snatch up Minnesota-based Medafor in a deal worth at least $200 million.
Bard, a New Jersey-based medical device and products maker, says it will pay up to $80 million more through June 30, 2015, based on specific revenue-based milestones. As the Star Tribune reports, Medafor's sale to Bard comes about three years after the company beat back a hostile takeover bid from Georgia biomedical device company CryoLife. Both companies' boards of directors have signed off on the deal, though regulatory review and a shareholder vote remain. Assuming the deal closes as planned, Bard will fold Medafor into its Davol subsidiary.
Bard will be getting, in part, Medafor's Arista MPH Hemostat, a product made from plants designed to control bleeding during various surgical procedures when other means don't work. Bard also had its eye on a number of Medafor products under clinical development focused on the same area. What's more, Arista should help complement Bard's own Progel sealant product, Bard noted. Executives at Bard are eyeing a lucrative space, with the global surgical hemostats market worth more than $1.4 billion globally.
The acquisition should add about 1% to Bard's revenue growth in 2014, the company said.
Bard chairman and CEO Timothy Ring said in a statement that the acquisition "represents an important building block for our surgical specialty product offering and provides a global footprint for continued expansion."
It shows, too, a continued trend of the major medical device companies turning toward acquisitions for new growth. Ring said, however, that the Medafor deal will help it boost organic growth in the longer term.
The Bard/Medafor acquisition comes a few days after a West Virginia federal jury ordered Bard to pay $2 million to a woman who sued the company over its Avaulta vaginal mesh, alleging it was unsafe and caused her numerous injuries.
- read the Bard release
- here's the Star Tribune story
- check out the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal's take
Editor's note: A Star Tribune reference to Medafor's 2012 revenue has been deleted because it could not be independently verified.