Abbott recently announced it has agreed to purchase Tendyne Holdings, Inc., which is a private medical device firm whose main focus is to develop less invasive therapies to replace mitral valves. The agreement stipulates that Abbott will acquire the part of the Tendyne firm that it does not own already for $225 million upfront. The total transaction value for the company will be $250 million, plus potential future payments tied to regulatory milestones.
The Bioprosthetic Mitral Valve System by Tendyne isn’t currently approved, as it is still considered an investigational device. The United States Food and Drug Administration has given approval for a clinical trial to be conducted in order to prove its feasibility by assessing the device’s safety and efficacy. The trial will begin to enroll patients next year in a clinical trial that will support application for the European CE Mark.
In a separate transaction, Abbott has also invested capital in order to secure the option of purchasing Cephea Valve Technologies, a privately held firm that is advancing a catheter-based mitral valve replacement therapy. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.
These novel technologies would be added to Abbott’s current structural heart portfolio, which includes MitraClip, a first-of-its-kind mitral valve repair device used to treat specific types of mitral valve disease, the most common type of heart valve disease. MitraClip is applied to the heart through a catheter introduced through the thigh’s blood vessel, known as a femoral vein. MitraClip is currently available in the United States, Europe, Canada and some countries in Latin America and Asia. Over 25,000 people worldwide have received treatment with the MitraClip device.
Like MitraClip, both Cephea and Tendyne valve replacement technologies are thought to be implanted into a beating heart, without the necessity of open heart surgery, which would further expand new treatment options. Less invasive mitral valve replacement and repair is expected to escalate to a multi-billion dollar market over the next 10 years.
“Mitral valve disease is highly complex and requires multiple treatment options in order to tailor the therapy based on each person’s anatomy and health situation. The Tendyne acquisition and our agreement with Cephea broaden our foundation as one of the leaders in treatments for mitral valve disease, with the goal of bringing promising, less invasive valve treatment technologies to people who need them,” noted John Capek from Ventures, Abbott.
