St. Jude Medical Completes Acquisition of NeuroTherm

Global medical device company St. Jude Medical (SJM; St. Paul, MN, USA) has announced the completion of the acquisition of privately held NeuroTherm (Wilmington, MA, USA), a manufacturer of interventional pain management therapies.

The acquisition of NeuroTherm, a global leader in the treatment of spinal pain using radiofrequency ablation (RFA), will give SJM a foothold in a segment of the chronic pain market of which it does not currently participate. NeuroTherm’s flagship technology is a multi-lesion RFA 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. The transaction, valued at about USD 200 million in cash, is expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter of 2014.

“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,” said Michael Rousseau, COO of St. Jude Medical. “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.”

“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,” said Christopher von Jako, PhD, president and CEO of NeuroTherm. “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.”

Chronic pain affects approximately 1.5 billion people worldwide—more than heart disease, cancer, and diabetes combined. The burden of chronic pain also carries an economic price tag of USD 300 billion annually in the United States, and costs EUR 300 billion to European health care systems. In 2013, there were 230 million Americans diagnosed with acute and chronic pain; only about 8% of these patients received interventional therapy.

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