In early 2014, Covidien’s largest division, the Surgical franchise, actively searched the marketplace for new, innovative companies to add to its portfolio.
Dennis and the Surgical divisional team identified a small, yet highly profitable company called New Wave Surgical. New Wave had developed and launched a device for robotic surgery that kept surgical instruments warm thereby preventing the robot cameras from fogging during the minimally invasive surgeries. The technology dealt with the issue of cameras inserted into patients during laparoscopic operations from getting too cold and surgeons having to remove the devices from the surgical cavity and douse them with warm water.
Two issues were holding the company back from realizing its full potential. First, the company needed greater commercial strength to change the current standard of care. Secondly, New Wave was having difficulty raising capital to fund expansion and bring its device to the global markets.
Seeing an opportunity to address these issues, Dennis and the business development team quickly worked on a transaction to bring New Wave into the Surgical division. In diligence, the team validated the commercial assumptions to enhance the growth, confirmed the clinical value realized by physicians and, most critically, assessed the strength of the underlying IP as it would be a key protector of the technology as adoption increased in the marketplace.
After successfully completing the transaction, the New Wave laparoscopic device became a successful tuck-in product for the Covidien Surgical franchise.