J&J to boost Cordis unit with Conor Med

Leading health care company Johnson & Johnson says that it has reached agreement to acquire the fellow USA-based cardiovascular device company Conor Medsystems, for around $1.4 billion in cash.

The acquisition will provide J&J's Cordis subsidiary, a pioneer in the area of coronary drug-eluting stents, with a unique controlled drug delivery technology, it says. This is currently employed in the CoStar stent system, a paclitaxel-eluting cobalt chromium stent with a bioabsorbable polymer, which is currently sold outside the USA. Enrollment for a pivotal clinical trial in the USA has been completed.

On closing of the deal, which is set for the first quarter of 2007, J&J expects to record a one-time charge of about $600.0 million to write-off in-process R&D costs.