Laborie has struck a $239 million deal to buy Cogentix Medical. The takeover will give Laborie control of devices for the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB) and stress urinary incontinence (SUI).
Cogentix has built its business around a urology portfolio spearheaded by a neuromodulation device to treat overactive bladder and a soft-tissue bulking agent for managing stress urinary incontinence. Double-digit urology growth last year took the unit’s annual sales up toward the $50 million mark, pushing Cogentix’s overall revenues beyond $56 million.
The revenue figure is well short of the three-year goal Cogentix set when it was created through the 2015 merger of Uroplasty and Vision-Sciences. But equally it is up on the period shortly after the merger when a combination of debt and competition from the far-larger Medtronic threatened Cogentix’s prospects. A subsequent investment by Accelmed and conversion of the debt into equity enabled Cogentix to invest in its sales team and fight back.
Accelmed has been rewarded with a big return on the stock it picked up when Cogentix was at a low ebb. The payday follows Laborie’s identification of Cogentix’s Urgent PC Neuromodulation System and Macroplastique as a good fit for its urology business.
“The acquisition of Cogentix advances our strategy to invest in leading technologies that provide product and channel scale to Laborie’s existing urology strategic business unit diagnostic and therapeutic portfolio, particularly in the areas of OAB and SUI,” Laborie CEO Michael Frazzette said in a statement.
When the deal closes, Cogentix’s products will slot into a business unit that already sells ultrasound bladder scanners, pelvic floor diagnostics and other urology devices. Laborie is paying a 14% premium over Cogentix’s closing price the day before the deal was disclosed to acquire the device manufacturer.
By Nick Paul Taylor
Source: Fierce Biotech
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent to MedTrace for their method of diagnosing the human heart via 15O-water PET. The patented method is the foundation of the company’s software aQuant, currently under development. Hendrik “Hans” Harms, PhD and Senior Scientist at MedTrace, and Jens Soerensen, Professor and Clinical Advisor to MedTrace, are the originators of the method.
Teresa Graham, currently head of global product strategy for Roche pharma, will become the division’s new CEO next month, Roche said Thursday. Simultaneously, Roche is elevating Levi Garraway, chief medical officer, to the executive committee.
Fierce Pharma has obtained internal documents and video of a town hall meeting conducted this week describing what J&J called a “comprehensive review” of its portfolio. Moving forward, J&J plans to operate its vaccines and infectious diseases outfits as one group, the executives explained.