St Jude Medical Inc, a global medical device company, has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire NeuroTherm Inc, a privately held pain management company. According to a St Jude Medical news release, NeuroTherm is a manufacturer of interventional pain management therapies and is among the leaders in the treatment of spinal pain using radiofrequency ablation (RFA), which is a segment of the chronic pain market that St Jude Medical does not currently participate. The acquisition of NeuroTherm is for approximately $200 million in cash.

The St Jude Medical news release notes that the company expects to complete this transaction by the end of the third quarter, subject to customary closing conditions, and NeuroTherm is expected to add approximately $10 million to $15 million to St Jude Medical’s 2014 sales. Excluding acquisition-related expenses, this transaction will be neutral to St Jude Medical’s consolidated earnings per share in 2014 and accretive thereafter on a GAAP basis, according to St Jude Medical.

Michael T. Rousseau, COO of St Jude Medical, says, “NeuroTherm’s radiofrequency ablation products are an ideal complement to St Jude Medical’s chronic pain portfolio, providing our global sales force with additional interventional pain therapies that offer potential relief to patients earlier in the chronic pain continuum.”

Rousseau adds, “As the only medical device manufacturer with both RFA and spinal cord stimulation, this acquisition will enable us to offer more treatment options to patients worldwide who suffer from the debilitating effects of chronic pain.”

NeuroTherm’s products are available in over 65 countries. Their flagship technology is a multilesion RF generator that allows real-time temperature monitoring and enables continuous delivery of energy to each site designed to ensure complete treatment of each targeted spinal nerve, as indicated on the St Jude Medical news release.

Christopher R. von Jako, PhD, president and CEO of NeuroTherm, says, “St Jude Medical’s global leadership in chronic pain represents an excellent opportunity to bring NeuroTherm’s RF ablation technologies to more pain specialists and patients. We see a promising future with St Jude Medical that combines our products with a leading pain franchise and further develops the underpenetrated global market for chronic pain.”

[Source: St Jude Medical]