DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Thoratec Corp. (THOR) and Danaher Corp. (DHR) have agreed to
scrap their agreement under which Danaher would've bought
Thoratec's division that makes diagnostic cools and
blood-monitoring systems for at least $110 million.
The companies cited their failure "to agree about the status of
certain aspects of [International Technidyne Corp.'s] quality
system and regulatory filings." Also hurting the deal was the delay
in getting regulatory approval for a new product, Thoratec said in
a statement.
As such, it said "it is in the best interest" of Thoratec, ITC
and employees to end the deal and let ITC focus on efforts
including getting clearance for that product, the ProTime
InRhythm.
Thoratec is focused these days on its HeartMate II pumps, which
were approved in January for patients with failing hearts who
aren't eligible for transplants. The move opened up a big market
for the devices, which already were approved for the smaller subset
of transplant eligible patients.
ITC is slower-growing and has lower profit margins, according to
analysts.
Shares of Danaher and Thoratec were inactive premarket.
-By Kevin Kingsbury, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2354;
kevin.kingsbury@dowjones.com
(Jon Kamp contributed to this article.)