The Hague: Dutch electronics giant Philips yesterday announced it was buying for ¤1.9bn a specialist US company manufacturing ground-breaking treatments for heart and vascular diseases to broaden its health portfolio.
The Amsterdam-based company said it would acquire Spectranetics, which has developed a range of lasers and balloons for treating blockages in cardio and arterial vessels.
Philips also simultaneously launched a two-year share buyback scheme of up to ¤1.5bn, which will start in the third quarter and represent a total of some 46.1m shares.
Spectranetics, which has 900 employees, is trialling a drug-coated balloon to treat calcified blood vessels from the inside and expects to get FDA approval in the United States soon, said Philips chief executive officer, Frans van Houten. "The drug-coated balloon segment is one of the fastest growing segments in peripheral vessel procedures," Van Houten said.
