OC Business Journal

Medtronic investment accelerates international Cathworks expansion

■ By PETER J. BRENNAN

After CathWorks’ Chief Executive Ramin Mousavi won a Business Journal Excellence in Entrepreneur Award last May, the world’s largest medical device maker validated the technology.

Medtronic PLC, a Minneapolis-based firm (NYSE: MDT) that’s valued around $120 billion, in July said it would invest $75 million in CathWorks, a cardiac-focused device maker that’s developed a new, noninvasive way of diagnosing heart disease.

It’s the largest funding deal to date for CathWorks, which was founded in 2013 in Israel.

Medtronic has the option to buy CathWorks in the next five years, at a $585 million valuation, plus other earn-out payments.

“We believe strongly in the potential of the technology and are committed to strengthening our relationship with CathWorks to provide new, innovative technologies and solutions from diagnosis to treatment,” Jason

Weidman, president of the Coronary and Renal Denervation business at Medtronic, which is part of the Minneapolis company’s Cardiovascular Portfolio, said in July.

Medtronic, which has been part of a prior CathWorks funding round, said it will also immediately begin co-promotion of CathWorks’ FFRangio System in the U.S., Europe and Japan, where it is commercially available.

“This long-term partnership opens up the door for exciting development activities,” Mousavi told the Business Journal at that time.

“As we launch this fourth-generation FFRangio System, it’s become clear that the product is ready for globalization.”

The company is still in the early stages of rolling out the FFRangio System, which is a noninvasive method without drugs to provide a 3D image of structural problems in the heart.

In October, CathWorks announced the approval of the latest iteration of the FFRangio System by the Japanese Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA).

About 19 million people globally, including 1 million in the U.S., die every year because of heart diseases, about 35% of total global mortality, making it by far the world’s biggest killer, Mousavi said. The potential addressable testing market is around $5 billion to $6 billion, he estimated. ■

NEWS

en-us

2023-02-06T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-02-06T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://ocbusinessjournal.pressreader.com/article/282153590429617

LABJ