The healthcare company Abbott Laboratories was approved for a $25 billion procurement of St. Jude Medical, who is known for its production of medical devices.
Abbott announced that it will be selling a vascular closure, used to seal small holes in the artery after a coronary, that is made by St. Jude along with its own steering device, which is used to place catheters into hearts, to a Japan-based corporation.
Abbott says that the deal with St. Jude will be a great asset when it comes to competition with other companies like Medtronic. The deal also comes at a good time when most hospitals are getting rid of many of their suppliers.
St. Jude, however, has been running into problems with its devices. St. Jude received complaints from research firm MedSec during the summer who said that devices used for the heart had many defects that allowed them to be susceptible to hackers. St. Jude denied the accusations of any defects and sued the firm. Later in the fall, St. Jude said it told doctors to cease use of pacemakers due to electric problems caused by malfunction of the battery.
On the other hand, Abbott has been doing business with Johnson and Johnson. Abbott has sold cardiovascular devices to Johnson and Johnson for an estimated $4.3 billion. Along with revamping its pharmaceutical company as AbbVie in 2013, Abbott is current attempting to withdraw from an agreement with Alere, a diagnostic maker, that is for $5.8 billion.
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