Pre-Deal Due Diligence Critical to Mergers and Acquisitions in Medical Device Industry
Consolidation, in the form of mergers and acquisitions, is relatively new to the medical device industry, and it certainly can have benefits to medical device companies. For example, a national medical instrumentation company, with market expansion possibilities, may advantageously merge with an international pharmaceutical company that lacks strength in instrumentation technology but is wise in global market strategy.
Acquisitions and mergers of medical device companies require thorough pre-deal due diligence. As part of this due diligence, medical device companies should understand the depth of their patent portfolios, potential exposure to patent litigation, and opportunity for exploitation of their patent positions. In addition, coupling of a medical device company and a pharmaceutical company can complicate the due diligence investigation because of the different technical focus of their patent portfolios. Such a due diligence investigation can be most effective if conducted by attorneys conversant and comfortable in the technology of the medical device company and of the pharmaceutical company.
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