Edwards Lifesciences has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Critical Care product group to BD in an all-cash transaction valued at US$4.2 billion. With this agreement, Edwards is no longer pursuing the previously announced spin-off of Critical Care.
Edwards will use the after-tax cash proceeds to fund strategic growth investments, in a move that it said will balance sheet flexibility for disciplined investments in technologies for aortic, mitral, tricuspid and pulmonic patients, as well as new therapeutic areas for interventional heart failure.
Edwards’ goal is to build the most comprehensive structural heart disease portfolio through its pursuit of breakthrough technologies, indication expansions and world-class evidence for its surgical, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) and transcatheter mitral and tricuspid innovations, with the focus on helping even more patients around the world, the company said in a press release.
“Edwards’ underlying rationale for separating Critical Care remains the same: we are laser focused on pursuing a strategy centred on structural heart disease,” said Bernard Zovighian, Edwards’ CEO. “Our goal is to serve large unmet patient needs with our differentiated innovations while extending our global leadership, delivering sustainable growth and increasing shareholder value. Critical Care has made significant contributions to our company and has a long history of pioneering innovation. We believe this transaction will strengthen Edwards, Critical Care and BD, paving the way for both companies to deliver even greater value to patients.”
