Boston Scientific is diving into the field of intravascular lithotripsy, with a $664 million deal to pick up Bolt Medical and its hardware for breaking through hardened and clogged arteries.
Set to close within the first half of the year, the deal would see Boston Scientific compete against minimally invasive systems under development at Abbott and Philips, among other companies.
That includes Johnson & Johnson, which penned the largest medtech acquisition of 2024 with its $13.1 billion purchase of Shockwave Medical—a devicemaker that Boston Scientific reportedly had its eye on at one time. Abbott, meanwhile, also spent $890 million in 2023 to buy Cardiovascular Systems and its Diamondback 360 mechanical orbital atherectomy portfolio.
“Representing one of the fastest growing medical device segments, intravascular lithotripsy therapy addresses a significant unmet need for patients with complex calcified arterial disease through a minimally invasive approach,” Lance Bates, president of Boston Scientific’s interventional cardiology division, said in the deal’s announcement. “Bolt Medical is developing a next-generation technology that is highly complementary to our existing portfolio.”
Boston Scientific previously held about a 26% stake in Bolt, and helped to develop its laser-based platform ahead of the company’s launch in 2019. The deal includes about $443 million delivered upfront for the remaining ownership, plus up to an additional $221 million tied to regulatory milestones.
Bolt’s technique, currently under development, involves threading a balloon through a calcified artery. Then, laser pulses are sent down the catheter through optical fibers; once they hit their target within the inflated balloon, the energy creates pressure waves and cavitation bubbles that crack the hardened deposits without injuring the blood vessel.
Last November, Bolt reported clinical data from two single-arm trials in patients with peripheral artery disease, studying the device’s use both above and below the knee.
In the above-the-knee study, dubbed RESTORE ATK, 95 participants saw no major complications in the 30 days after the procedure, and no patients needed to undergo a second procedure to further reopen the vessel. Meanwhile, the below-the-knee RESTORE BTK study enrolled 20 patients, and met its similar safety and efficacy endpoints, as well.
Bolt has also been trialing its approach in coronary artery disease and presented an update on its first-in-human cardiac study last October, which evaluated the successful placement of stents following the intravascular lithotripsy procedure in 22 patients.