Cook Medical to Sell Reproductive Health Biz

Cook Medical revealed today that it signed a letter of intent to sell its Reproductive Health business (Cook ART) to private equity firm Astorg.

The sale includes Cook’s in vitro fertilization (IVF) and assisted reproductive technology (ART) portfolio.

This prospective deal follows Cook’s attempt to sell its Reproductive Health business to CooperCompanies for $875 million in February 2022. However, in August 2023 the duo abandoned the proposed deal after the FTC’s investigation for anti-competition related to the sale. As a result, the transaction was cut to $300 million and CooperCompanies instead acquired Cook’s obstetrics, doppler monitoring, and gynecology surgery franchises.

Astorg has extensive experience in medtech investments. The private equity firm plans to combine the Cook ART portfolio with its Hamilton Thorne line of precision instruments, consumables, software and services to the ART research and cell biology space.

Cook said the 93 Reproductive Health employees will receive employment offers from or automatically transfer to the combined company when the transactions close. The closing is anticipated for this fall.

This transaction also includes Cook’s Vandergrift, Pa. manufacturing site. There will be a three-year transition period after the deal closes during which Cook will keep offering manufacturing services there. After that, all 309 employees at the facility will transfer to the combined company.

“Cook is focused on our vision to deliver a continuous stream of innovative new products and services to address unmet customer needs. Part of achieving that business strategy has included reviewing our product portfolio and identifying what product lines are the best fit for Cook moving forward and which might have more opportunity to grow or thrive elsewhere,” said DJ Sirota, senior VP of Cook Medical’s MedSurg division. “Astorg has exciting plans to build an IVF/ART manufacturing hub at our facility in Vandergrift, PA, creating a core location for manufacturing operations for Cook ART products. The expertise and skill of our Reproductive Health commercial and manufacturing teams will be critical to this transaction, which reflects the value our employees have to this business, its customers, and patients around the world.”