LATHAM -- AngioDynamics announced Wednesday it is going ahead with the purchase of Microsulis Medical Ltd.’s microwave ablation technology.
The Microsulis device uses microwave technology to destroy tumors, while AngioDynamics’ own NanoKnife system uses electrical pulses to destroy tumor cells without heat.
The purchase option has been available to AngioDynamics since March, as part of a $5 million investment in Denmead, England-based Microsulis. The initial agreement gave AngioDynamics exclusive distribution rights to market and sell Microsulis’s microwave ablation system in all markets outside the U.S. from May until the end of this year.
Under the terms of the deal, AngioDynamics will pay $10 million cash initially, to be followed by a $5 million cash payment at the end of 2013, according to a statement issued Wednesday. The Latham-based firm will also assume up to $1 million of liabilities on Microsulis’ books.
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“This transaction strengthens AngioDynamics’ position as the clear market-leading innovator in the $250 million global tissue ablation market, with a complete offering of thermal and non-thermal technologies that includes microwave, radio frequency and the NanoKnife system,” said AngioDynamics President and CEO Joseph DeVivo. “The nine months we’ve operated with Microsulis under the strategic relationship initiated in March 2012 has further proven to us this technology is the most innovative microwave system on the market today.”
DeVivo said AngioDynamics’ thermal ablation business generated $23 million from global sales for 2012. But that revenue has been flat over the last three years, a streak he expects the Microsulis technology to break.
The Microsulis device has necessary regulatory approvals in both U.S. and European markets and is in use in more than 80 hospitals worldwide, according to the company statement.
“With the addition of microwave, we expect sales to grow an average of 20 percent annually over the next three years at margins that are nicely accretive to our overall business,” DeVivo said.
A second-generation version of the Microsulis “Accu2i pMTA” device is expected to be launched in the U.S. shortly after the transaction is complete, which is expected to occur by the end of the month.
AngioDynamics announced Wednesday during its annual analysts conference in New York City that it plans to incorporate the microwave ablation technology in an all-in-one device that offers a full spectrum of ablation technologies on the same cart, called the “total ablation solution.”
AngioDynamics employs about 1,400 worldwide, with two manufacturing plants in the Glens Falls area that employ a total of about 900.
Amy Phillips, a spokeswoman for AngioDynamics, said Wednesday the buyout won’t mean any new jobs for the Glens Falls area in the short term, but that there would be an expansion with new positions “in the long term,” as a result of the Microsulis acquisition.
Phillips said details about the time frame or approximate number of jobs to be added were not available Wednesday, however.
