C.R. Bard to Buy Stent From Edwards Lifesciences for $140M

Medical-device maker C. R. Bard Inc. agreed to buy Edwards Lifesciences Corp.’s experimental artery- clearing stent for as much as $140 million. The terms include $74 million in cash up front and about $65 million more for milestones that include U.S. regulatory approval of Edwards’s LifeStent. The purchase, to close next month, should have a “negligible” effect on 2008 earnings and add profit afterward, Murray Hill, New Jersey-based Bard said today in a statement. The LifeStent, now approved in the U.S. only for use in stomach arteries, has been submitted for approval to be used to prop open arteries in legs. The product had sales of $30 million this year, which could more than double in two years, according to a research note today from Taylor Harris, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. “The deal makes imminent strategic sense and should provide a financial boost in 2009 and beyond” for Bard, Harris said in the note. “LifeStent should fit very nicely within Bard’s peripheral vascular product portfolio and sales force.” Harris projected sales of $50 million next year and $70 million by 2009. In a separate statement, Edwards said it was losing money on the product. The stent opens clogged leg arteries the same way as tiny balloons used in the heart procedure called angioplasty and keeps them open longer, according to a study the company reported in October. LifeStent flattens fat deposits against the side of the blood vessel, then a tiny mesh tube remains in place to keep the artery open. Personnel Shift Edwards rose 57, or 1.2 percent, to $48.49 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Bard rose $2.21, or 2.7 percent, to $85.11. The agreement could affect as many as 150 Edwards workers. Some will transfer to Bard in the next 2 1/2 years, Edwards said. SOURCE: Bloomberg.com