Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) yesterday signaled that it’s unlikely to pull the trigger on any merger & acquisition deals to bolster its cardiology business, according to a Leerink Partners analyst.
Worldwide chairwoman Sandi Peterson told Leerink’s Danielle Antalffy that the company has faith in its ability to “compete effectively” in cardiology with just two key operations in place, “which would imply no imminent acquisition in this space is likely,” according to an investors note sent out this morning.
“Peterson remains confident that JNJ can remain competitive within cardiology with just an electrophysiology (EP) and neurovascular portfolio, which would imply that JNJ has no plans to acquire a full-service cardiology company at this time,” Antalffy wrote.
Still, that doesn’t rule out some M&A in the future for the world’s second-largest medical device business, she wrote.
“Though acquisitions are seemingly off the table right now, we still believe there is future potential in the years to come for JNJ to be acquisitive in order to build scale within cardiology,” Antalffy wrote.
The news comes amid a flurry of consolidation in medtech including some participation from J&J, which in recent weeks agreed to roll its TearScience acquisition together with its Abbott Medical Optics buy and rolled out a new neurovascular business, dubbed Cerenovus, to encompass its recent Pulsar Vascular and Neuravi pickups plus its existing Codman Neuro portfolio.
