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| Former Hologic CEO Robert Cascella |
The musical chairs among medical device CEOs continues with the announcement that Robert Cascella--who stepped down from Hologic ($HOLX) last July as its profits and share price slumped--has been named chairman of Scotland's DySIS Medical. Like Hologic, DySIS focuses on developing tools for women's health.
DySIS's flagship product is a non-invasive device to aid physicians in detecting and diagnosing pre-cancerous lesions of the cervix. The company, which was founded in 2002, raised 7 million pounds ($11 million) in venture capital last April from Lundbeckfond Ventures, Albion Ventures and the Scottish Investment Bank. DySIS said it will use the funds to expand its marketing efforts in the U.S. and Europe.
"DySIS has the unique opportunity to increase the effectiveness of the current standard of care in developed markets, while potentially addressing an unmet healthcare need in emerging markets, where the diagnosis and treatment of cervical disease remains woefully inadequate," Cascella said in the announcement of his appointment.
Cascella has more than 30 years of experience in the life sciences industry but is best known for his 10-year stint as CEO of Hologic, one of the leading makers of imaging and diagnostic devices for women's health, including mammography machines and prenatal testing systems. After the company bought diagnostics maker Gen-Probe in 2012 for $3.8 billion, it struggled to define a workable business model. Hologic projects sales will fall between 1% and 3% in fiscal 2014 to about $2.4 billion, and the company has recorded a loss in 5 of the last 6 years.
Corporate raider Carl Icahn revealed in November he had picked up a 12.6% stake in Hologic. Shortly thereafter, Cascella's replacement, Jack Cumming, left and was replaced by ex-Stryker ($SYK) CEO Stephen MacMillan, who has vowed to grow the company, not sell it, as Icahn is famous for pressuring companies to do. Hologic adopted a poison pill plan to block investors from acquiring enough shares to force a takeover.
- here's the DySIS release