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January 25, 2006 Two Weddings and a Funeral The funeral is, of course, the Johnson & Johnson deal to acquire Guidant. Hold the tears, however. While J&J's quarterly report yesterday showed a slowdown in sales, their profits soared and their Cordis Cypher drug-eluting stent overtook Boston Scientific's in the worldwide market. They now claim 51% of the total drug-eluting stent market, although their U.S. share has remained at 46%. And many J&J stockholders seem to be relieved that their company didn't overspend by trying to outbid Boston Scientific. With $50 billion in revenue for the year (that's eight Boston Scientifics) don't cry for me, New Jersey. And now the double nuptials:. Wedding number one -- the bride Guidant's maiden name is Lilly -- in 1995 several of Eli Lilly's device subsidiaries, cardiac rhythm management among them, were spun off to form part of a new device company, called Guidant. The groom, Boston Scientific's Founder Chairman Pete Nicholas, worked at Eli Lilly from 1967-78 (alongside Guidant Chairman James Cornelius). And Nicholas really is the groom because he is married to Eli's great-great-granddaughter. Now Pete's company will be buying this former Lilly division. Congratulations are in order. As for wedding number two -- a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, when interventional cardiology was just beginning, a cardiology fellow named John Simpson was working with angioplasty pioneer Dr. Richard Myler in San Francisco. Dr. Simpson saw this burgeoning new field of medical devices and became an avid inventor/entrepeneur. His innovative balloon catheter and steerable wire system turned into a company named Advanced Cardiovascular Systems (ACS). In 1984 Simpson sold ACS to Eli Lilly (small world) and a decade later, it became -- you guessed it -- Guidant. Another of Simpson's inventions was a vascular closure device, used to seal the femoral artery after an angiogram or angioplasty without the time-consuming process of manual compression. It was called Perclose. This device turned into a company, also called Perclose, and in 1999 it was bought by Abbott. Now Guidant's vascular division, formerly Simpson's ACS, is betrothed to Abbott, formerly Simpson's Perclose. Congratulations are in order. So the happy couples are now making plans to set up house and figuring out how to merge their record collections, and what to do with their duplicate copies of Hotel California. Meanwhile, deep-pocketed Johnson & Johnson, having been rebuffed, is reportedly on the prowl for another eligible device partner. So, to console the lonely Johnson & Johnson, we send out this request tune, "Hey, [St.] Jude":
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