Like a young joey carried safely in a marsupial's pouch, so too will devicemaker Phenox be tucked into its new parent company, the aptly named Wallaby Medical.
Both companies have developed lines of neurovascular devices meant for use in interventional stroke treatments. Wallaby’s include a neuro-embolic coil system to treat aneurysms and a handful of stroke-focused catheters—while Phenox has put out ranges of flow diverters and stent retrievers, plus coating technologies for those implants. Phenox also owns its subsidiary Femtos, which uses femtosecond laser technology to churn out stents and other neurovascular implants.
Wallaby and Phenox have been partners since 2019 when the latter began serving as the exclusive distributor for several of Wallaby’s offerings in the U.S. and Europe.
Wallaby’s acquisition is already complete, the companies announced Thursday, after securing the necessary regulatory sign-offs.
Wallaby doled out approximately €500 million to fold Phenox’s stroke-centric devices into its own product slate. That total encompassed both upfront and milestone payments, though the buyer didn’t provide a specific breakdown of those costs.
Wallaby, which is based in both California and Shanghai, funded the transaction with the proceeds from its latest fundraising round. Neither the closing date nor the total raised in that series D funding has been disclosed, but the company previously raked in $45 million in series C funding in late 2020.
With the deal closed, Wallaby CEO Michael Alper remains chief executive of the newly expanded company. Meanwhile, Phenox founder Hermann Monstadt, Ph.D., has been named managing director of Phenox under the Wallaby umbrella, where all Phenox product brands will be retained.
The acquisition—which the companies said represents “one of the largest cross-border transactions in the medical device industry globally in recent years”—greatly expands each of their footprints, since the U.S.- and China-based Wallaby has a strong presence in both regions and the German-based Phenox sells devices in more than 45 countries in Europe and beyond.
“The Wallaby-Phenox combination will have deep roots in Europe and China, with a strong presence in the U.S. and a recent entrance into the Japan market,” Alper said in a statement. “By combining the highly complementary product pipelines of the two companies, we will be able to offer a full spectrum of world-class interventional neurovascular products and solutions.”