HeartWare International acquires CircuLite

HeartWare International, Inc., which specializes in advance heart failure technology, has acquired CircuLite, the developer of the SYNERGY Circulatory Support System.

The system is designed for less sick chronic heart failure patients who are not yet inotrope-dependent.

HeartWare acquired all issued and outstanding equity interests of CircuLite for around $30 million, with around $18 in HeartWare common stock and cash of around $12 million to settle CircuLite debt and transaction expenses.

“The partial-support system developed by CircuLite represents the industry’s most intriguing platform for the treatment of patients with earlier stage heart failure,” said Doug Godshall, president and CEO at HeartWare. “CircuLite has pioneered the partial-assist approach and demonstrated that this technique can significantly enhance the quality of life for this group of patients, which is believed to be a substantially larger population than the end-stage heart failure patients that HeartWare currently treats with our full-support Ventricular Assist Devices (VADs).”

While HVAD® and MVAD® Systems offer minimally invasive treatment to end-stage heart failure patients, the SYNERGY platform are even less invasive, the company said.

CircuLite’s micro-pump is placed in a pacemaker-like pocket and attached to the inflow cannula and outflow graft, which connects to a wearable, external controller and battery pack. CircuLite said it’s in the process of upgrading the device.