07.22.14
$4.35 Billion
Key Executives:
Olivier Bohuon, CEO
Mike Frazzette, President, Advanced Surgical Devices
Glenn Warner, President, Advanced Wound Management
Gordon Howe, President, Global Operations
Cyrille Petit, Chief Corporate Development Officer
Arjun Rajaratnam, Chief Compliance Officer
Brad Cannon, President, Endoscopy, Trauma & Extremities
Gaurav Agarwal, President, Orthopedic Reconstruction
David Kelman, VP, Hip Development
Laura Whitsitt, Sr. VP, Research & Emerging Technologies
David Hoffman, Sr. VP, Emerging Business Group
No. of Employees: 12,024
Global Headquarters: London, the United Kingdom
Many companies, first time out of the proverbial gate with a new product may find success, but divine providence won’t sustain growth for long. It takes a plan, a formula, a roadmap—call it what you like. In the long-term, success doesn’t just happen. It’s planned for.
The “plan” (both in the short term—i.e., the most recent full fiscal year—and farther down the road) for orthopedic heavyweight Smith & Nephew plc for FY13 (ended Dec. 31) was a healthy mix of new product introductions (stoked by a robust R&D pipeline) plus the promise of emerging-growth areas such as the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China).
According to the report from consulting company Deloitte called its “2014 global healthcare outlook,” as the U.S. and European markets level out—especially in the large-joint markets—over the next five years, the Asia-Pacific market is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the world for orthopedic devices. The Deloitte report highlighted healthcare spending in emerging Middle East and Asian marketplaces. Middle Eastern countries are expected to see a 10 percent increase in healthcare spending while China and India are expected to see a 14 percent and 17 percent growth respectively due to fast-growing populations and expanded access to healthcare.
Due East
During the fiscal year, Smith & Nephew’s emerging and international market sales grew 18 percent to $563 million, comprising 13 percent of the company’s revenue (up from 8 percent in 2010). By contrast, established markets grew 2 percent to $3.8 billion.
China, for example, is now Smith & Nephew’s sixth-largest global market, and delivered revenue growth of more than 30 percent in 2013. To meet growing demand in that market, the company opened an extension of its Advanced Wound Management unit’s manufacturing facility in Suzhou, China, more than doubling the size of the facility (totaling 291,000 square feet) and doubling output capacity.
The company made key purchases in growth markets—distributors and manufacturers.
Smith & Nephew acquired the Brazilian distribution of its wound care products from Politec Saúde for an undisclosed amount. Politec Saúde, was the exclusive distributor of Smith & Nephew’s Advanced Wound Management (AWM) products in Brazil, and derived about one-quarter of its overall revenues from advanced wound management sales. Smith & Nephew also purchased Brazilian distribution partner Pró Cirurgia Especializada.
“Being closer to the customer is at the heart of our emerging markets strategy. Brazil is a long-term opportunity and this is an important investment which creates a significant platform from which we can grow,” said CEO Olivier Bohuon.
Bouhon’s international shopping spree also included targets in India—Adler Mediequip Pvt Ltd. and with it, the brands and assets of Sushrut Surgicals Pvt Ltd., which makes orthopedic trauma products in India for the Indian market. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The move was Smith & Nephew’s entry point into India, which has a growing trauma segment.
“Through this important acquisition we are continuing to deliver on our strategic priorities to build leadership positions in the emerging markets, to supplement our organic growth through acquisitions, and to bring forward a mid-tier offering for these regions,” said Bohuon. “Sushrut-Adler has a long and distinguished history, a reputation for quality products and a loyal customer base. Its trauma portfolio strongly complements our established positions in orthopedic reconstruction and sports medicine in India, giving us an enhanced platform from which to continue to build a sustainable business.”
Products include primarily trauma implants and instrumentation, but the companies also have spine and limb salvage portfolios.
In addition, the company bought the distribution arm of its orthopedic reconstruction, trauma and sports medicine products in Turkey from Plato Group for an undisclosed amount.
Aggressive R&D
For FY13, research and development represented 5.3 percent of Smith & Nephew’s revenue—a healthy increase of 35 percent to $231 million from $171 million in 2012.
The company’s big-ticket product launch was the Journey II Bi-Cruciate Stabilized (BCS) total knee system from the company’s Advanced Surgical Devices (ASD) sector. It is the second generation of the Journey knee product.
“The Journey II BCS knee takes knee performance beyond the current standards for fit and alignment and gives patients the complex motion, strength and stability of a human knee,” said Gaurav Agarwal, president of Smith & Nephew’s joint reconstruction business. “You don’t have to ask patients if it feels like a normal knee—you can see it in their gait and in their post-op[eration] X-rays. We redefined knee implant function when we launched the original Journey knee in 2005, and with Journey II we have again outpaced traditional knee replacement technology.”
According to officials from Smith & Nephew, this most recent Journey knee is more than an iterative change to an existing product. It is, they claim, the result of “intense research and design,” and the development of what the company calls “Physiological Matching” technology. Using its LifeMOD human simulation software, Smith & Nephew engineers were able to conduct proprietary analysis of the bone, ligament and muscle forces that impact the knee, and then account for those forces within the design of an implant that restores anatomic shapes and normal motion.
“Unlike implants that create unnatural motion with a symmetric, circular design, or with a rotating platform, the Journey II BCS knee accommodates the swing-and-rotate of the knee with the same engineering principles the body naturally uses,” explained Steven Haas, M.D., chief of the Knee Service at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, N.Y. “As a result, the muscles and ligaments around the new joint don’t have to work harder because the implant’s natural shape and resulting motion allow these soft tissues to move in familiar ways. This leads to higher patient satisfaction scores, more mechanical efficiency of the muscle, and a more natural feeling while walking or bending in the months after their procedure.”
The Journey II is made from Smith & Nephew’s Verilast material, which is the combination of two wear-reducing materials—the firm’s proprietary Oxinium alloy and a highly cross-linked plastic liner. Smith & Nephew claims that Verilast “significantly” reduces implant wear compared to traditional bearing couples on the market. According to the company, Oxinium is 4,900 times more abrasion resistant than cobalt chrome and reduces knee replacement wear on traditional liners by up to 85 percent compared to cobalt chrome components.
Smith & Nephew also introduced the Healicoil Regenesorb bio-composite suture anchor. Building on the success of its Healicoil PK design, this new suture anchor is the first device to use the company’s proprietary Regenesorb material—an advanced biocomposite that has reportedly been shown in pre-clinical studies to be absorbed and replaced by bone within 24 months.
“The Healicoil Regenesorb suture anchor is a perfect marriage of implant design and material,” said orthopedic surgeon Scott Trenhaile, clinical assistant professor of surgery, University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford. “Within this one implant, I get the bone ingrowth and mechanical strengths of the original Healicoil, as well as the bioabsorption advantages that come from gradually transferring the stresses to the healing bone as the anchor is steadily absorbed.”
Most biocomposite implants use the osteoconductive properties of beta tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) to provide 18 months of sustained bone formation. While this is effective in creating a “scaffold” for enhancing new bone formation, Regenesorb goes one step further by adding a second osteoconductive component, calcium sulfate. Calcium sulfate has been shown to work in the early stages of bone healing and is associated with increased levels of local growth factors.
All Healicoil suture anchors use an open-architecture design that eliminates the inner diameter material found in traditional, solid-core anchors. Pre-clinical testing has demonstrated that this design allows for new bone to fill the spaces between the threads and within the central channel by 12 weeks after implantation. In addition, the extended, fully-threaded Healicoil Regenesorb anchor design was shown in biomechanical testing to provide more threaded engagement than other biocomposite anchors, delivering greater pullout strength in poor-quality, osteoporotic bone. The company claims that the Healicoil inserter engages nearly 100 percent of the anchor’s length, which minimizes stress and provides predictable insertion into hard bone by distributing torque along the entire length of the anchor.
“When we introduced the Healicoil PK Suture Anchor, its design set a new standard for innovation in our industry,” said Brad Cannon, president, endoscopy, trauma and extremities for Smith & Nephew. “With Healicoil Regenesorb, we combined the benefits of that design with an advanced material to raise the standard even higher.”
Designed primarily for shoulder rotator cuff repair, the Healicoil Regenesorb suture anchor is also indicated for use in the knee, elbow, foot and ankle.
The company rolled out 23 new products from its AWM division, such as the Durafiber Ag (the element symbol for silver) antimicrobial dressing. The Durafiber Ag combines a highly absorbent, gelling fiber filler dressing infused with silver, which is a broad-spectrum antimicrobial. According to the company, the addition of silver provides clinicians with a different approach to address bacterial contamination posed by medium to heavily exuding wounds. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared Durafiber Ag in 2011, but the company chose to delay the release of the dressing in the United States.
Smith & Nephew’s InVenture program—in which surgeons inventors are paired with product development experts from the company—delivered the Modular Rail System in 2013, a external fixator used for deformity correction and limb restoration designed in collaboration with Dror Paley, M.D., of the Paley Advanced Limb Lengthening Institute at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Fla.
“Over the course of my 25-plus year career, I’ve tried many of the available rail systems on the market, none of which fully meet my needs,” Paley said. “Working with Smith & Nephew, I was able to design and develop a modular, multi-planar rail which can articulate across the hip, knee, ankle or elbow joints while allowing for lengthening and deformity correction.”
Adding It All Up
The company’s revenue for the year was $4.35 billion, compared with $4.14 billion in 2012. Advanced Wound Management delivered strong growth, officials noted, led by Healthpoint Biotherapeutics, a wound-care company Smith & Nephew’s acquired in 2012 for $782 million (Healthpoint is now known as Smith & Nephew Biotherapeutics). Bioactives are a rapidly growing area of wound care. Greater understanding of wound biology is driving the development of new biopharmaceuticals designed to stimulate the body’s own regenerative processes.
The company’s operating profit was $810 million (2012: $846 million), reflecting integration costs and increased amortization of acquisition intangibles from the acquisition of Healthpoint. Profit before tax was $802 million. The 2012 profit before tax was $1,092 million, which included a $251 million profit on disposal of the company’s clinical therapies business.
ASD (hips, knees, trauma, extremities, sports medicine and arthroscopic devices) delivered $3.02 billion in revenue, compared to $3.11 billion in 2012. Growth by franchise: Knee implant sales (29 percent of revenue) were flat; hip implant sales (22 percent of revenue) were down 1 percent; trauma extremities products (18 percent of revenue) were up 4 percent; sports medicine joint repair (16 percent of sales) grew top line by 7 percent; arthroscopic technologies (15 percent of sales) dropped 2 percent. In the company’s “other” ASD franchise (2 percent of revenue), which includes gynecology instrumentation, revenue growth was 14 percent. Operating profit for the advanced surgical devices sector was up 4 percent to $620 million.
AWM delivered revenue of $1.34 billion, up from $1.03 billion in 2012. Revenue growth was up 22 percent in the United States, up 3 percent in our “other established markets,” and up 20 percent in the emerging and international markets. Advanced wound care (63 percent of sales) revenue grew by 1 percent, advanced wound devices (16 percent of sales) grew by 20 percent, and advanced wound bioactives (21 percent of sales) were up 47 percent. AWM’s operating profit was down 8 percent to $190 million.
Going Big in 2014
In one of the first jackpot medical device deals of 2014, Smith & Nephew announced plans to by ArthroCare Corp. for $1.7 billion, increasing the company’s reach in the faster-growing sports medicine market.
ArthroCare, based in Austin, Texas, makes products used in arthroscopic surgery on shoulders and knees. Sports medicine typically involves minimally invasive soft-tissue surgery from sports or work-related injuries. Arthrocare specializes in soft-tissue surgery. It makes devices, instruments and implants that improve surgical procedures, including a radio-frequency technology that, according to the company, dissolves soft tissue with less damage than traditional heat-driven processes.
“We wanted to acquire in high-growth businesses, and sports medicine is definitely one of them,” Bohuon said when the deal was announced.
The companies are no strangers to doing business together. Smith & Nephew’s sports medicine arthoscopic business sells ArthroCare’s Colblation RF (radio frequency) technology through a licensing agreement.
But the road to ownership wasn’t free of bumps. Smith & Nephew agreed to pay $12 million to settle lawsuits filed by ArthroCare Corp. shareholders who took legal action because they believed the proposed $1.7 billion takeover was undervalued.
As of May this year, regulatory authorities in Europe and the United States had given the merger their blessing.
ArthroCare reported $377.9 million in revenue for 2013.
Key Executives:
Olivier Bohuon, CEO
Mike Frazzette, President, Advanced Surgical Devices
Glenn Warner, President, Advanced Wound Management
Gordon Howe, President, Global Operations
Cyrille Petit, Chief Corporate Development Officer
Arjun Rajaratnam, Chief Compliance Officer
Brad Cannon, President, Endoscopy, Trauma & Extremities
Gaurav Agarwal, President, Orthopedic Reconstruction
David Kelman, VP, Hip Development
Laura Whitsitt, Sr. VP, Research & Emerging Technologies
David Hoffman, Sr. VP, Emerging Business Group
No. of Employees: 12,024
Global Headquarters: London, the United Kingdom
Many companies, first time out of the proverbial gate with a new product may find success, but divine providence won’t sustain growth for long. It takes a plan, a formula, a roadmap—call it what you like. In the long-term, success doesn’t just happen. It’s planned for.
The “plan” (both in the short term—i.e., the most recent full fiscal year—and farther down the road) for orthopedic heavyweight Smith & Nephew plc for FY13 (ended Dec. 31) was a healthy mix of new product introductions (stoked by a robust R&D pipeline) plus the promise of emerging-growth areas such as the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China).
According to the report from consulting company Deloitte called its “2014 global healthcare outlook,” as the U.S. and European markets level out—especially in the large-joint markets—over the next five years, the Asia-Pacific market is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the world for orthopedic devices. The Deloitte report highlighted healthcare spending in emerging Middle East and Asian marketplaces. Middle Eastern countries are expected to see a 10 percent increase in healthcare spending while China and India are expected to see a 14 percent and 17 percent growth respectively due to fast-growing populations and expanded access to healthcare.
Due East
During the fiscal year, Smith & Nephew’s emerging and international market sales grew 18 percent to $563 million, comprising 13 percent of the company’s revenue (up from 8 percent in 2010). By contrast, established markets grew 2 percent to $3.8 billion.
China, for example, is now Smith & Nephew’s sixth-largest global market, and delivered revenue growth of more than 30 percent in 2013. To meet growing demand in that market, the company opened an extension of its Advanced Wound Management unit’s manufacturing facility in Suzhou, China, more than doubling the size of the facility (totaling 291,000 square feet) and doubling output capacity.
The company made key purchases in growth markets—distributors and manufacturers.
Smith & Nephew acquired the Brazilian distribution of its wound care products from Politec Saúde for an undisclosed amount. Politec Saúde, was the exclusive distributor of Smith & Nephew’s Advanced Wound Management (AWM) products in Brazil, and derived about one-quarter of its overall revenues from advanced wound management sales. Smith & Nephew also purchased Brazilian distribution partner Pró Cirurgia Especializada.
“Being closer to the customer is at the heart of our emerging markets strategy. Brazil is a long-term opportunity and this is an important investment which creates a significant platform from which we can grow,” said CEO Olivier Bohuon.
Bouhon’s international shopping spree also included targets in India—Adler Mediequip Pvt Ltd. and with it, the brands and assets of Sushrut Surgicals Pvt Ltd., which makes orthopedic trauma products in India for the Indian market. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The move was Smith & Nephew’s entry point into India, which has a growing trauma segment.
“Through this important acquisition we are continuing to deliver on our strategic priorities to build leadership positions in the emerging markets, to supplement our organic growth through acquisitions, and to bring forward a mid-tier offering for these regions,” said Bohuon. “Sushrut-Adler has a long and distinguished history, a reputation for quality products and a loyal customer base. Its trauma portfolio strongly complements our established positions in orthopedic reconstruction and sports medicine in India, giving us an enhanced platform from which to continue to build a sustainable business.”
Products include primarily trauma implants and instrumentation, but the companies also have spine and limb salvage portfolios.
In addition, the company bought the distribution arm of its orthopedic reconstruction, trauma and sports medicine products in Turkey from Plato Group for an undisclosed amount.
Aggressive R&D
For FY13, research and development represented 5.3 percent of Smith & Nephew’s revenue—a healthy increase of 35 percent to $231 million from $171 million in 2012.
The company’s big-ticket product launch was the Journey II Bi-Cruciate Stabilized (BCS) total knee system from the company’s Advanced Surgical Devices (ASD) sector. It is the second generation of the Journey knee product.
“The Journey II BCS knee takes knee performance beyond the current standards for fit and alignment and gives patients the complex motion, strength and stability of a human knee,” said Gaurav Agarwal, president of Smith & Nephew’s joint reconstruction business. “You don’t have to ask patients if it feels like a normal knee—you can see it in their gait and in their post-op[eration] X-rays. We redefined knee implant function when we launched the original Journey knee in 2005, and with Journey II we have again outpaced traditional knee replacement technology.”
According to officials from Smith & Nephew, this most recent Journey knee is more than an iterative change to an existing product. It is, they claim, the result of “intense research and design,” and the development of what the company calls “Physiological Matching” technology. Using its LifeMOD human simulation software, Smith & Nephew engineers were able to conduct proprietary analysis of the bone, ligament and muscle forces that impact the knee, and then account for those forces within the design of an implant that restores anatomic shapes and normal motion.
“Unlike implants that create unnatural motion with a symmetric, circular design, or with a rotating platform, the Journey II BCS knee accommodates the swing-and-rotate of the knee with the same engineering principles the body naturally uses,” explained Steven Haas, M.D., chief of the Knee Service at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, N.Y. “As a result, the muscles and ligaments around the new joint don’t have to work harder because the implant’s natural shape and resulting motion allow these soft tissues to move in familiar ways. This leads to higher patient satisfaction scores, more mechanical efficiency of the muscle, and a more natural feeling while walking or bending in the months after their procedure.”
The Journey II is made from Smith & Nephew’s Verilast material, which is the combination of two wear-reducing materials—the firm’s proprietary Oxinium alloy and a highly cross-linked plastic liner. Smith & Nephew claims that Verilast “significantly” reduces implant wear compared to traditional bearing couples on the market. According to the company, Oxinium is 4,900 times more abrasion resistant than cobalt chrome and reduces knee replacement wear on traditional liners by up to 85 percent compared to cobalt chrome components.
Smith & Nephew also introduced the Healicoil Regenesorb bio-composite suture anchor. Building on the success of its Healicoil PK design, this new suture anchor is the first device to use the company’s proprietary Regenesorb material—an advanced biocomposite that has reportedly been shown in pre-clinical studies to be absorbed and replaced by bone within 24 months.
“The Healicoil Regenesorb suture anchor is a perfect marriage of implant design and material,” said orthopedic surgeon Scott Trenhaile, clinical assistant professor of surgery, University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford. “Within this one implant, I get the bone ingrowth and mechanical strengths of the original Healicoil, as well as the bioabsorption advantages that come from gradually transferring the stresses to the healing bone as the anchor is steadily absorbed.”
Most biocomposite implants use the osteoconductive properties of beta tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) to provide 18 months of sustained bone formation. While this is effective in creating a “scaffold” for enhancing new bone formation, Regenesorb goes one step further by adding a second osteoconductive component, calcium sulfate. Calcium sulfate has been shown to work in the early stages of bone healing and is associated with increased levels of local growth factors.
All Healicoil suture anchors use an open-architecture design that eliminates the inner diameter material found in traditional, solid-core anchors. Pre-clinical testing has demonstrated that this design allows for new bone to fill the spaces between the threads and within the central channel by 12 weeks after implantation. In addition, the extended, fully-threaded Healicoil Regenesorb anchor design was shown in biomechanical testing to provide more threaded engagement than other biocomposite anchors, delivering greater pullout strength in poor-quality, osteoporotic bone. The company claims that the Healicoil inserter engages nearly 100 percent of the anchor’s length, which minimizes stress and provides predictable insertion into hard bone by distributing torque along the entire length of the anchor.
“When we introduced the Healicoil PK Suture Anchor, its design set a new standard for innovation in our industry,” said Brad Cannon, president, endoscopy, trauma and extremities for Smith & Nephew. “With Healicoil Regenesorb, we combined the benefits of that design with an advanced material to raise the standard even higher.”
Designed primarily for shoulder rotator cuff repair, the Healicoil Regenesorb suture anchor is also indicated for use in the knee, elbow, foot and ankle.
The company rolled out 23 new products from its AWM division, such as the Durafiber Ag (the element symbol for silver) antimicrobial dressing. The Durafiber Ag combines a highly absorbent, gelling fiber filler dressing infused with silver, which is a broad-spectrum antimicrobial. According to the company, the addition of silver provides clinicians with a different approach to address bacterial contamination posed by medium to heavily exuding wounds. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared Durafiber Ag in 2011, but the company chose to delay the release of the dressing in the United States.
Smith & Nephew’s InVenture program—in which surgeons inventors are paired with product development experts from the company—delivered the Modular Rail System in 2013, a external fixator used for deformity correction and limb restoration designed in collaboration with Dror Paley, M.D., of the Paley Advanced Limb Lengthening Institute at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Fla.
“Over the course of my 25-plus year career, I’ve tried many of the available rail systems on the market, none of which fully meet my needs,” Paley said. “Working with Smith & Nephew, I was able to design and develop a modular, multi-planar rail which can articulate across the hip, knee, ankle or elbow joints while allowing for lengthening and deformity correction.”
Adding It All Up
The company’s revenue for the year was $4.35 billion, compared with $4.14 billion in 2012. Advanced Wound Management delivered strong growth, officials noted, led by Healthpoint Biotherapeutics, a wound-care company Smith & Nephew’s acquired in 2012 for $782 million (Healthpoint is now known as Smith & Nephew Biotherapeutics). Bioactives are a rapidly growing area of wound care. Greater understanding of wound biology is driving the development of new biopharmaceuticals designed to stimulate the body’s own regenerative processes.
The company’s operating profit was $810 million (2012: $846 million), reflecting integration costs and increased amortization of acquisition intangibles from the acquisition of Healthpoint. Profit before tax was $802 million. The 2012 profit before tax was $1,092 million, which included a $251 million profit on disposal of the company’s clinical therapies business.
ASD (hips, knees, trauma, extremities, sports medicine and arthroscopic devices) delivered $3.02 billion in revenue, compared to $3.11 billion in 2012. Growth by franchise: Knee implant sales (29 percent of revenue) were flat; hip implant sales (22 percent of revenue) were down 1 percent; trauma extremities products (18 percent of revenue) were up 4 percent; sports medicine joint repair (16 percent of sales) grew top line by 7 percent; arthroscopic technologies (15 percent of sales) dropped 2 percent. In the company’s “other” ASD franchise (2 percent of revenue), which includes gynecology instrumentation, revenue growth was 14 percent. Operating profit for the advanced surgical devices sector was up 4 percent to $620 million.
AWM delivered revenue of $1.34 billion, up from $1.03 billion in 2012. Revenue growth was up 22 percent in the United States, up 3 percent in our “other established markets,” and up 20 percent in the emerging and international markets. Advanced wound care (63 percent of sales) revenue grew by 1 percent, advanced wound devices (16 percent of sales) grew by 20 percent, and advanced wound bioactives (21 percent of sales) were up 47 percent. AWM’s operating profit was down 8 percent to $190 million.
Going Big in 2014
In one of the first jackpot medical device deals of 2014, Smith & Nephew announced plans to by ArthroCare Corp. for $1.7 billion, increasing the company’s reach in the faster-growing sports medicine market.
ArthroCare, based in Austin, Texas, makes products used in arthroscopic surgery on shoulders and knees. Sports medicine typically involves minimally invasive soft-tissue surgery from sports or work-related injuries. Arthrocare specializes in soft-tissue surgery. It makes devices, instruments and implants that improve surgical procedures, including a radio-frequency technology that, according to the company, dissolves soft tissue with less damage than traditional heat-driven processes.
“We wanted to acquire in high-growth businesses, and sports medicine is definitely one of them,” Bohuon said when the deal was announced.
The companies are no strangers to doing business together. Smith & Nephew’s sports medicine arthoscopic business sells ArthroCare’s Colblation RF (radio frequency) technology through a licensing agreement.
But the road to ownership wasn’t free of bumps. Smith & Nephew agreed to pay $12 million to settle lawsuits filed by ArthroCare Corp. shareholders who took legal action because they believed the proposed $1.7 billion takeover was undervalued.
As of May this year, regulatory authorities in Europe and the United States had given the merger their blessing.
ArthroCare reported $377.9 million in revenue for 2013.