Bard acquiring Medivance for $250 million

LOUISVILLE – Medical technology firm C.R. Bard Inc. will acquire medical device company Medivance Inc. in a $250 million transaction.

Once the merger is complete, Louisville-based Medivance Inc. will become part of Bard Medical Division, the companies said in a press statement Oct. 25.

C.R. Bard (NYSE: BCR) is based in Murray Hill, New Jersey.

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It was not immediately clear how the merger might affect the Louisville office, which has about 50 employees in Louisville and another 50 or so at other locations worldwide.

Medivance makes therapeutic hypothermia products used to treat a variety of critically ill patients, including those who have had heart attacks.

The company’s Arctic Sun products induce mild hypothermia by rapidly cooling a patient’s core body temperature, which can reduce the severity of damage to a patient’s neurological systems and vital organs. The product is wrapped around the outside of a patient’s body.

Medivance’s temperature management products addresses an unmet need in the market, which is growing by double digits, said Timothy M. Ring, chairman and chief executive officer of C.R. Bard.

“This acquisition represents an important building block for our critical-care product offering,” Ring said.

The merger is expected to wrap up in the fourth quarter of this year, the companies said in a press statement.

Bard expects the dilution impact to be immaterial to earnings per share in 2011. Bard also manufactures and markets technologies in the areas of vascular urology, oncology and surgical specialty products.

In recent years, manipulating body temperature has emerged as an effective treatment option for some patients. The American Heart Association, The American Stroke Association, The Brain Trauma Foundation and others have issued therapeutic hypothermia guidelines as more clinical data supports the use of temperature management devices.

Medivance was founded in 1998 by Robert Kline and Gary Carson. The first temperature management project in 2001 was designed to warm patients during surgical procedures such as open heart surgery. The technology was quickly adopted by more than 50 hospitals, according to the company website.

In 2003, the company decided to focus on cooling products and licensed the warming technology to global health-care firm Kimberly-Clark Health Care in Roswell, Georgia.

The Arctic Sun Temperature Management System earned a 2004 IQ Award from the Boulder County Business Report in the medical and health products and services category.

The product is now used in more than 90 percent of leading cardiac hospitals and 70 percent of leading neurological hospitals as ranked by U.S. News and World Report magazine.

Kline worked in the medical device field for more than 25 years before starting Medivance. Kline and Carson spent time with clinicians in the field to understand what the requirements were for temperature management before creating the first Arctic Sun product. Previous systems were “fairly archaic,” Kline said in a 2004 article about the product – ice packs, water blankets and the like.

Medivance has received at least $43 million from investors that include Camden Partners, Credit Suisse First Boston, Kimberly-Clark Ventures and Partisan Management Group.

Separately, C.R. Bard Inc. saw its third quarter revenue grow 6 percent to $719.2 million. Sales rose about 2 percent in the United States and 17 percent in other countries.

The company increased product lines through a variety of acquisitions and new product launches in the third quarter, Ring said in the statement.