Boston Scientific Corp. has finalized its previously announced $415 million purchase of Bayer AG's Interventional Division--a deal Boston Scientific says will help it build its vascular condition treatments business.The transaction includes endovascular devices AngioJet Thrombectomy System and Fetch 2 Aspiration Catheter, which remove blood clots from blocked arteries and veins, according to Boston Scientific's Tuesday announcement of the deal close. The JetStream Atherectomy System plaque and thrombi removal tool is also in the portfolio of peripheral vascular health tools that Leverkusen, Germany-based Bayer AG possessed.The acquisition had been cited as one of the largest mergers of the year, though still dwarfed by Medtronic's planned $43 billion acquisition of Covidien. The Boston Scientific purchase includes Bayer AG's atherectomy and thrombectomy categories, which contributed to the company's $120 million in sales in 2013. Boston Scientific's second quarter revenues reached $1.87 billion, up 4% from the same period in 2013 and slightly exceeding analysts' estimates. Representatives from Boston Scientific have referred to the purchase as a "tuck-in" acquisition. President and CEO Michael Mahoney told analysts this summer that the company planned to grow its business organically, with some smaller mergers. Other relatively small medtech mergers have occurred recently, despite some predictions that companies would overlook minor acquisitions as they sought giant purchases. Analysts had speculated that larger-cap companies would aim for bigger deals, not tuck-ins, and skip small-cap medtech companies in cardio, spine, and extremities in the near future. In June, Stryker (Kalamazoo, MI) announced purchase of upper and lower extremity maker Small Bone Innovations (Morrisville, PA) for $375 million in cash. Similarly, Cardinal Health Inc. (Dublin, OH) bought privately-held interventional cardiology company AccessClosure Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) for $320 million, and Roche purchased molecular diagnostics outfit IQuum (Marlborough, MA) for $275 million. Another vascular disease treatment toolmaker, Cordis (Bridgewater, NJ), is rumored to be on the market, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Cordis, which is the medical device manufacturing segment of Johnson & Johnson, competes with Boston Scientific.

Anastasia Thrift is a contributor to Qmed and MPMN.

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