Acquisition · Medical devices
Asahi Intecc buys US sensor guide-wire developer Pathways Medical
- Buyer
- Asahi Intecc (Seto, Aichi)
- Target
- Pathways Medical, Delaware-registered
- Value
- ¥2.44B (about $22M), plus up to ¥744M more by July 2023
- Status
- Agreed in April 2021; completed in July 2021.
- Date
- 2021-04-12
Asahi Intecc agreed to buy all shares of Pathways Medical, a company set up in 2020 that prints thin electrical wiring onto the surface of guide wires. The price was ¥2.44 billion, with up to ¥744 million more if set goals are reached by July 2023. Asahi plans to use the technology in a stroke guide wire with sensors that it is developing with French company Sensome.
Why it matters
Wires that can carry sensors could let doctors measure inside blood vessels during treatment, a step beyond Asahi's core guide-wire business.
About Pathways
Pathways is based in New Castle, Delaware. Besides printing very thin, even films of wiring onto narrow, curved surfaces such as guide wires and catheters, it has its own way of connecting that wiring to sensors. In 2019 it completed a first-in-human study of a sensor guide wire, showing the idea could work.
Part of a bigger push
Asahi Intecc agreed to buy Pathways in the same week as Rev. 1 Engineering, a US device design firm, and 70% of Kardia, its Italian distributor. Takenaka Partners advised Asahi Intecc's US arm on the Pathways deal.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
