St Jude Medical announces Endosense takeover

St Jude Medical has announced the purchase of the Swiss medical technology firm Endosense in a deal worth an initial $170 million (108.4 million pounds).

Endosense is a pioneer in the field of contact-force measurement in catheter ablation and is responsible for developing TactiCath, an irrigated ablation catheter that provides physicians with a real-time objective measure of the force they apply to the heart wall.

This takeover offers a number of strategic benefits to St Jude Medical, which has the global reach and capabilities to drive further growth for the Endosense business, while incorporating its new subsidiary's technology into its own product offerings.

The terms of the transaction also provide for an additional cash payment of up to $161 million based on the achievement of a future regulatory milestone.

Frank Callaghan, president of the cardiovascular and ablation technologies division of St Jude Medical, said: "The acquisition of Endosense further strengthens our industry-leading portfolio of products to treat patients with cardiac arrhythmias and provides an opportunity to accelerate our market share capture in the $900 million global cardiac ablation catheter market."

This comes after St Jude Medical received US approval for its MediGuide Enabled Ablation Catheter for the treatment of irregular heartbeats earlier this month.