Lazard Life Sciences Conference In Brief

St. Jude nabs ANS: Stock symbol ANSI pulled off the NASDAQ after St. Jude successfully acquires all outstanding shares of the neuromodulation firm, CFO John Heinmiller announces Nov. 30 at the Lazard Life Sciences Conference in New York. The firm made the $1.3 bil. acquisition offer in October to leverage its expertise in low-voltage cardiac stimulation with ANS' knowledge of spinal cord stimulation (1"The Gray Sheet" Oct. 24, 2005, p. 16). During the conference, Heinmiller said that St. Jude plans to heavily market its Atlas and Epic ICD lines to gain market share in Japan; the products launched in September. "That's about a $125 mil.-$150 mil. market that we can just begin to participate in," he said, noting that the firm's pacemakers enjoy a 25%-28% market share in Japan...