Heart Assist Companies Position for Longevity

Recently, all three major players in the ventricular assist device market have consolidated. In May of this year, Baxter International merged its Novacor VAD business into World Heart. Not long after, Thoratec Laboratories acquired the ThermoCardiosystems division of Thermo Electron. Each deal had a different primary motive, but the companies all share a common goal of positioning their businesses for a long and expensive development process.

In medical devices today, consolidation tends to happen for two reasons. In mature product segments, successful companies consolidate from a position of strength to maintain their market dominance. In nascent segments, lesser players often merge in order to gain the resources to withstand high R&D costs and the expense of building market share. Generally, one type of deal precedes the other, but lately, the ventricular assist device (VAD) market has seen both kinds of deals at once, evidencing the rapid evolution of the market, and pointing out just how little time small players have to achieve critical mass.

Recently, all three major players in the ventricular assist device market have consolidated. In May of this year, Baxter International...

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