Abbott Laboratories announced Monday it was expanding its relationship with St. Jude Medical, building on a 2008 partnership to Abbott to promote St. Jude’s optical coherence tomography and fractional flow reserve technologies. St. Jude’s has been in the news of late over safety issues with its Riata and Riata ST devices, which are alleged to have caused at least 22 deaths. Abbott spokesperson Jonathan Hamilton told MM&M that the matter was not part of the conversations surrounding the latest Abbott-St Jude partnership. Hamilton said the technologies that are the focus of the partnership with St. Jude’s help doctors place stents and that Abbott sees “those as key technologies and we’re very pleased to be in that agreement.”
Amylin is making the rounds among prospective buyers weeks after rejecting a $3.5 billion takeover bid by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Reuters reports. Amylin markets diabetes drugs Byetta and Bydureon. The company has hired legal and financial advisers in preparation for a sale, even as it works to fend off a suit by major investor Carl Icahn. The company declined comment on the matter.
