Ballerup, Denmark and Kissing, Germany, October 25, 2017 – Today, Ambu A/S – a leader in the development, manufacture and marketing of single-use devices for hospitals (NASDAQ OMX Copenhagen: AMBU) – has acquired invendo medical GmbH. invendo medical is a leading developer of sterile, single-use HD endoscopy products in the field of gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery. Started in 2002, invendo medical is a privately held medtech company that employs 35 people and is located in Kissing, Germany.
invendo has developed the world’s first single-use gastrointestinal platform of which the second version of the first product – a HD colonoscope – is expected to be CE marked and have FDA clearance in 2018. Today, Ambu operates in the field of pulmonary endoscopy (visualisation of the airways) of which there are approximately 5 million procedures annually. With the acquisition of invendo medical, Ambu enters the field of gastrointestinal endoscopy (visualisation of the stomach and intestines) of which there are approximately 70 million procedures annually.
The purchase price of EUR 225 million includes up-front payment of EUR 115 million on a debt and cash free basis and contingent payments up to EUR 110 million. The contingent payments consist of EUR 70 million in milestone payments based on FDA clearance of future products and EUR 40 million in earn-out over a 4-year period.
“This acquisition is a massive upgrade of our business potential. We introduced single-use endoscopy for airway procedures with the Ambu aScope, and now, we will get ready to introduce single-use for the gastrointestinal procedures,” says Lars Marcher, CEO of Ambu. “This is an important acquisition that puts Ambu in an ideal position to further disrupt the reusable regime within endoscopy.”
Fares Zahir, CEO of Xeraya Capital – invendo’s largest venture capital investor, commented “We are delighted with the prospect of invendo being further driven by Ambu’s strategic leadership in this space.
We believe this is vindication of the efforts by invendo’s management team led by CEO Timo Hercegfi and the company’s other backers in developing a product that will help to eliminate infection risk and reprocessing needs for flexible GI endoscopy.”
Single-use for patient safety and healthcare economy
Advanced reusable medical devices – like endoscopes – pose a contamination risk to patients as the devices are difficult to sterilise between uses. Single-use scopes, on the other hand, are sterile straight from the pack to the patient. This means that single-use scopes eliminate the risk of device-related infections and – because they do not require cleaning or repair – also improve hospital workflows.
Since 2015, US authorities have increased their focus on endoscope cross-contamination considerably. And especially reusable endoscopes for gastrointestinal use have been tied to the outbreak of infectious pathogens.
invendo medical has been founded by German medical doctors Dr. Konstantin and Dr. Alexander Bob. The company has been backed by venture capital investors including funds managed by Xeraya Capital, TVM Capital, Wellington Partners, 360 Capital Partner and Heidelberg Innovation as well as by undisclosed family offices and private investors.
Barclays is acting as exclusive financial advisor to the shareholders of invendo medical. CMS Hasche Sigle is serving as legal advisor.
About invendo medical
Based in Kissing (near Munich), Germany and New York, U.S.A. invendo medical is dedicated to sterile, single-use and robotically-assisted HD endoscopy products in the field of gastroenterology and GI surgery. The company has over the last years embedded several proprietary technologies into its first product, the sterile and single-use invendoscope™ SC210 – expected to be cleared for marketing in 2018, and will introduce a full suite of other sterile and single-use GI endoscopes in the future.
