Medtronic to buy Ablation Frontiers for $225M

Medtronic delves further into atrial fibrillation therapies with new purchase. Image Source: Heart Rhythm Society

With an eye toward boosting its atrial fibrillation solutions business, Medtronic has entered into an agreement to acquire Ablation Frontiers for an initial payment of $225 million, plus potential additional payments contingent upon the achievement of certain clinical milestones.

The acquisition, approved by Ablation Frontiers shareholders, is subject to regulatory clearance. Medtronic said it expects the transaction to close in its fourth fiscal quarter, ending April 24.

“Once the transaction is complete, we will add Ablation Frontiers’ emerging technologies to our growing AF Solutions franchise,” according to Pat Mackin, president of the cardiac rhythm disease management business and senior vice president at Medtronic.

The Minneapolis-based Medtronic said its newly formed AF Solutions franchise, led by Vice President and General Manager Reggie Groves, will offer physicians a choice of ablation therapies and tools to meet the needs of their AF patients, as well as the needs of their practices.

Following Medtronic’s recent acquisition of the Montreal-based CryoCath Technologies, a provider of cryoablation treatments for AF, the addition of Ablation Frontiers’ catheter-based ablation technologies and its radiofrequency (RF) energy system will be added to Medtronic therapies.

In 2006, Ablation Frontiers of Carlsbad, Calif., received CE Mark to begin marketing its system of catheters and the RF generator in the European Union. The company is currently conducting a clinical trial under an FDA investigational device exemption to gain approval for treatment of chronic AF in the U.S.