The sale to Terumo is subject to Abbott Labs completing its $25 billion purchase of St. Jude Medical.

Chris Newmarker

Abbott has yet to complete its acquisition of St. Jude Medical, but the two companies are already making deals to shed off businesses that are not core to the giant medical device company they are creating.

Abbott Labs and St. Jude Medical will sell their vascular closure portfolio and other assets to Japanese multinational Terumo, the companies announced Tuesday. The $1.12 billion sale is subject to Abbott and St. Jude completing their merger, as well as antitrust regulatory approvals.

The sale includes, St. Jude Medical's Angio-Seal and FemoSeal vascular closure products, as well as Abbott's Vado Steerable Sheath. The Angio-Seal, for example, offers healthcare providers an alternative to sealing catheterization puncture sites through manual compression.

Abbott and St. Jude officials meanwhile boast that their combined companies will holding strong positions in such high-growth areas as atrial fibrillation, structural heart and heart failure, and neuromodulation.

Dwindling margins at U.S. hospitals are leading many hospital administrators to look for cost savings from medical device companies, and health payers around the world are pushing to pay for medical devices and other products based less on volume and more on the value they provide. The environment favors bigger entities that can leverage economies of scale.