BD to Buy Edwards’ Critical Care Biz for $4.2 Billion

BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) began a deal to acquire Edwards Lifesciences’ Critical Care business for $4.2 billion in cash.
 
With this agreement, Edwards is no longer pursuing the previously announced spinoff of Critical Care.
 
Edwards’ Critical Care business invented the hemodynamic monitoring category. Its advanced patient monitoring and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms are used in over 10,000 hospitals to better understand critically ill patients’ cardiovascular conditions in real-time. Hemodynamic monitoring and medication management tech are often used at the same time in the OR or ICUs.
 
The portfolio includes the Swan Ganz pulmonary artery catheter, minimally invasive sensors, noninvasive cuffs, tissue oximetry sensors, and monitors. Its smart technologies are driven by advanced data analytics with machine learning and AI-based predictive and prescriptive algorithms.
 
The business is made up of about 4,500 employees with most based in Irvine, Calif. It will continue to operate there under the leadership of Katie Szyman, who’s currently the corporate VP of the Critical Care business. In 2023, the business accrued over $900 million in revenue.
 
The transaction is expected to close before the end of 2024.
 
“Edwards’ underlying rationale for separating Critical Care remains the same: we are laser focused on pursuing a strategy centered 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.”
 
“Critical Care expands BD’s portfolio of smart connected care solutions with its growing set of leading monitoring technologies, advanced AI-enabled clinical decision tools and robust innovation pipeline that complement BD’s existing technologies serving operating rooms and intensive care units,” said Tom Polen, chairman, CEO, and president of BD. “We believe the combination unlocks multiple new avenues for growth and value creation through BD’s broad global footprint, increased penetration across new and existing hospital customers, new innovation opportunities across data sets and platforms, and application of the BD Excellence operating system. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to all key financial measures with a strong return profile, which underscores our continued commitment to generate sustained shareholder value. Critical Care is well aligned to BD’s core innovation and business strategies, is a strong cultural fit and we look forward to welcoming Katie and Critical Care’s talented team to BD.”