Boston Scientific has exercised its option to wholly acquire Millipede, based on research at Michigan, having purchased a $90m stake in the mitral regurgitation treatment device maker last year.

Medical device manufacturer Boston Scientific has acquired the rest of the shares in one of its portfolio companies, US-based mitral regurgitation system developer Millipede Medical, for $325m. The transaction is expected to close within the first quarter of this year. Millipede will receive an additional $125m payment if it reaches an unspecified commercial milestone. Founded in 2012, Millipede is developing a medical device to treat patients suffering from severe mitral regurgitation – a condition that causes blood to flow the wrong way in the heart – who are not able to tolerate open-heart surgery. The device, the Iris Transcatheter Annuloplasty Ring System, is inserted through a transcatheter procedure and can be administered either as a standalone therapy or in conjunction with other treatments. Boston Scientific secured an option to wholly acquire the rest of Millipede’s shares when it made a $90m primary and secondary investment in the company in January 2018. The deal also gave Millipede the right to compel Boston Scientific to acquire it following an in-human trial, and the company revealed that it recently completed a first-in-human clinical study for the technology. Millipede was co-founded by venture capital firm and majority investor Santé Ventures together with Steven Bolling, professor of cardiac surgery at University of Michigan. It raised $6.2m from seven undisclosed backers in 2016 according to a regulatory filing. – This article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.

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Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is the editor of Global University Venturing, host of the Beyond the Breakthrough interview podcast and responsible for the monthly GUV Gazette (sign up here for free).