Cook Medical to sell reproductive health business to private equity firm

Dive Brief:

Cook Medical has signed a letter of intent to sell its reproductive health business to the private equity firm Astorg, the medtech company said Monday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
CooperCompanies previously tried to buy the business for $875 million, but scrapped the deal because of antitrust issues. Instead, Cooper only bought some of Cook’s obstetrics, doppler monitoring and gynecology surgery devices for $300 million.
Astorg entered into a separate agreement to buy reproductive technology company Hamilton Thorne for about 388 million Canadian dollars ($282 million). The private equity group plans to combine Hamilton Thorne with the Cook assets after the transactions close.

Dive Insight:

Cook has reshaped its operations in recent years, offloading part of its reproductive business to Cooper, selling ear, nose and throat devices to C2Dx and laying off 500 employees. The $300 million Cooper deal left Cook with a portfolio of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and assisted reproductive technology (ART) products.

The Astorg deal, which is expected to close in the fall, will include the products and a manufacturing facility in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. Cook will continue to provide manufacturing services from the facility for three years after the deal closes. After that, Cook’s 209 Vandergrift employees will transfer to Astorg’s reproductive health company.

DJ Sirota, senior vice president of Cook’s medsurg division, said in a statement that “Astorg has exciting plans to build an IVF/ART manufacturing hub at our facility in Vandergrift, PA, creating a core location for manufacturing operations for Cook ART products.” Cook’s 93 commercial reproductive health employees will either receive employment offers or move to Astorg’s company when the deal closes.

Astorg plans to combine Cook’s assets with Hamilton Thorne’s ART instruments, consumables, software and services. Hamilton Thorne generated sales of $19.4 million in the first quarter, up 16% year over year, and said it was on track to achieve full-year sales of $78 million to $82 million.