Creganna acquired Avalon Medical Services Pte Ltd., also known as Tactx Medical Inc., for an undisclosed amount, in a bid to join the top ranks of the global minimally invasive medical device market.
Galway, Ireland-based Creganna, which has operations in Marlborough, Mass., said it will now operate under the Creganna-Tactx Medical banner. Creganna CEO Helen Ryan said the move is part of the company’s vision to build a medical technology company with global reach.
“This move firmly positions Creganna-Tactx Medical within the top 10 global providers of technologies and services to minimally invasive medical device companies,” Ryan said in a press release.
Campbell, Calif.-based Tactx provides OEM balloon catheters, balloon blowing, braiding and coiling, RF tipping, RF welding, resistance welding and pad printing services. Its high-volume manufacturing operation, Avalon Medical Services, is based in Singapore.
Besides its Massachusetts and Galway operations, the new firm will have a presence in California, Minnesota and Singapore. Creganna-Tactx Medical will specialize in high-end therapeutic catheters for interventional cardiology, neurology, peripheral vascular, cardiac rhythm management and endoscopy. The combined operations, which generated revenues of $110 million in 2009, will employ more than 800 workers worldwide.
In February, 2009, Creganna acquired Micromuscle AB and its Nobel Prize-winning artificial muscle technology for an undisclosed amount, after the Swedish firm’s venture-capital backer backed out.
Linkoeping, Sweden-based Micromuscle’s electroactive polymer technology won the Nobel Prize in 2000, but the company was forced to shut down after one of its major VC investors pulled out. The product is a biocompatible EAP that functions like human muscle tissue, swelling and contracting under electrical stimulation. Creganna hopes to use the technology to control the movement of devices and to control the release of substances from device/drug combinations.