Vascular Solutions Acquires Venture Catheter From St. Jude Medical

August 17, 2012—Vascular Solutions, Inc. (Minneapolis, MN) announced that it has acquired the Venture wire control catheter from St. Jude Medical, Inc. (St. Paul, MN) for a total price of $3 million.

As detailed in a Vascular Solutions press release, the Venture is a deflectable-tip catheter used to provide guidewire directional control in challenging coronary and peripheral interventional procedures. The deflectable atraumatic distal tip can be angled up to 90º, providing physicians with control and precision while navigating complex turns in the vessel and lending back-up support when crossing tight lesions.

The Venture catheter is currently sold in the United States and international markets in three versions—over-the-wire, rapid-exchange, and coronary sinus—all of which are 6 F-compatible and directionally control a standard 0.014-inch guidewire during difficult interventions.

Vascular Solutions stated that it has acquired all of the remaining finished goods inventory of the Venture catheter for immediate transition of existing sales, and has acquired the manufacturing equipment to begin the process of restarting and qualifying production in Vascular Solutions' existing manufacturing facility. The company expects to complete the manufacturing qualification during the second quarter of 2013, at which time it plans to re-launch the device on a worldwide basis.