Weekly Business Insights 08/16/2023
Report: Boston Scientific may look to buy Shockwave Medical. Proposed Merger Is a Match Made in AI. Medtech M&A outlook for 2023: Spinoffs, China exits, AI opportunities poised to spur deal rebound.
Report: Boston Scientific may look to buy Shockwave Medical
Shockwave stock price soared on the back of the news. It rose 11.9% to $290.72 per share in mid-afternoon trading. Shares of BSX dipped 2.8% to $51.13 apiece. The outlet cited sources with knowledge of the matter as saying Boston Scientific could look to bolster its cardiovascular portfolio.
Shockwave Medical aims to transform the treatment of calcified cardiovascular disease. It seeks to establish a new standard of care for the interventional treatment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The company offers differentiated and proprietary local delivery of sonic pressure waves for the treatment of calcified plaque. Called IVL, the company designed its minimally invasive, easy-to-use, safe treatment to improve patient outcomes.
IVL (intravascular lithotripsy)safely modifies calcium while significantly reducing the risk of complications. This makes procedures more predictable and efficient.
This deal wouldn’t come as a complete surprise to us,” Thibault wrote. “IVL has taken significant share in recent years and combining it with [Boston Scientific’s] existing coronary and peripheral product portfolio (PCI solutions in coronary and Eluvia and Ranger in peripheral) makes strategic sense to us. [Shockwave] is a high-quality asset and trades at a premium valuation to its MedTech peers.”
Report: Boston Scientific may look to buy Shockwave Medical (massdevice.com)
Proposed Merger Is a Match Made in AI
Renovaro BioSciences has announced a letter of intent to merge a subsidiary with Gedi Cube, a company focused on artificial intelligence offerings. Los Angeles-based Renovaro is a pre-clinical biotechnology firm in cell, gene, and immunotherapy focused on solid tumors with short life expectancy.
The deal would be beneficial because Gedi Cube’s AI technology could potentially enable the combined company to focus upcoming human trials on the cancers most likely to respond to therapy, expand the database of key markers for earlier diagnosis and disease progression and discover new generations of Renovaro’s treatment approach as well as entirely new therapies.
"Renovaro, Latin for 'renewal', represents our company’s mission,” Renovaro Biosciences CEO Dr. Mark Dybul said. “Our advanced cell, gene and immunotherapy techniques are designed to reinvigorate the body’s natural tumor-fighting mechanisms. I believe joining forces with GEDi Cube could enhance the efficacy of our upcoming trials and speed up the discovery of novel treatment approaches, thereby extending our life-saving technology to more cancer patients and renewing hope for them and their families.”
Proposed Merger Is a Match Made in AI(mddionline.com)
Medtech M&A outlook for 2023:Spinoffs, China exits, AI opportunities poised to spur deal rebound.
JimWelch, global medtech leader for Ernst & Young:
With the activity so far down in 2022, the 2023 outlook is certainly going to be a little bit more active than that. But we’re still seeing valuations for high-growth medtechs at really high levels. Organizations that can demonstrate high cash flow or low technology risk are still commanding significant valuations in the marketplace.
And given all the spinoffs and portfolio moves by the bigger players, we think in the back half of the year, that’ll create their need to do bolt-on acquisitions and shore up the remaining parts of their portfolios.
The technology and the channels are there, but they’re ahead of policy, so the reimbursement is holding that back. Still, people are snapping up some of that technology, because sooner or later that’s going to have to change — it’s just pure economics. Private equity has come in to kind of help drive some of the change, buying ambulatory surgery centres. They see it’s technology that’s going to drive some of the M&A, with growth in procedures, in cardio and respiratory areas.