Raymond Cohen, co-founder of Axonics, can now breathe a sigh of relief.
After a long delay tied to a federal probe of the Axonics sale, Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) announced Nov. 15 the closure of its $3.7 billion acquisition of the medical device maker less than a year after the deal was announced in January.
Axonics, a medtech company that makes products to treat incontinence, is set to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Boston Scientific under its urology division led by General Manager Kristin LaRocca.
“This is great news for everybody,” Cohen told the Business Journal.
Cohen has officially retired as chief executive and will no longer be involved with the company he helped build. In an interview, he said he plans to spend time serving on the boards of other medical device companies, such as Washington-based Kestra Medical Technologies Inc.
“I’d like to stay involved in medical devices,” he said. “It’s a love of mine.”
Cohen was recently announced as the new chairman of SoniVie Ltd., a clinical-stage company that works on a device to treat hypertension.
Cohen has over 40 years of experience leading medical device companies.
In 2024, he was named a Business Journal Innovator of the Year in September, as well as Businessperson of the Year in the healthcare sector in January.
FTC Enacts New M&A Rules
Originally expected to close in the beginning of April, the deal was delayed after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation into the transaction.
In the spring, both Boston Scientific and Axonics received inquiries from the FTC for additional documents and information, or what’s known as a “second request.” The inquiry extended the waiting period until both parties complied, pushing the transaction completion date back to the second half of 2024, according to a regulatory filing.
“I’ve done a number of deals in my career, and I’ve never had the FTC open an investigation, so that was surprising,” Cohen said.
“In the end, they found nothing, did nothing and eventually cleared the deal,” he added.
This comes one month after the FTC voted unanimously to make major changes to the review process for mergers and acquisitions in the U.S.
A major area of focus for the FTC is protecting competition in healthcare markets, according to an annual report.
Under the revised rules, companies filing a premerger notification under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act will soon be required to submit more materials, including transaction documents, a description of each business’ product lines and disclosures of investors in the buyer.
Both the acquiring and acquired parties will also have to submit separate forms moving forward.
The changes are set to go into effect 90 days after they’re published in the Federal Register, according to Reuters.
400 Employees Remaining in Irvine
About 400 of Axonics’ 900 employees work out of its new Irvine headquarters. Last April, the company inked a nearly 145,500-square-foot deal to relocate its headquarters to the Sand Canyon Business Center, a few blocks from Irvine Valley College. It was the largest local office lease of 2023.
Axonics previously occupied 75,000 square feet of space across three offices in Irvine.
It plans to move out of its prior headquarters at 26 Technology and its other leases by year end, according to Cohen.
The acquisition of Axonics will add its portfolio of sacral neuromodulation systems to Boston Scientific’s urology business, which accounted for $2 billion of its $14.2 billion in full-year revenue for 2023.
Besides LaRocca’s recent appointment and the departure of a few C-suite executives, “everyone else is still doing exactly what they were doing,” Cohen said.
“Why would you disrupt the apple cart when you have a winning company who’s doing great in the market?” he said.
Board Roles for SoniVie, Kestra Medical
SoniVie is the second company working to help treat hypertension that Cohen has been involved with.
In 2010, he restarted Vessix Vascular, a device maker of products to treat high blood pressure, and sold it to Boston Scientific for more than $200 million two years later.
Cohen has served as a board member at SoniVie for a year before the company appointed him chairman.
SoniVie is currently conducting a premarket approval study in the U.S., testing the efficacy of and safety of its Therapeutic Intra-Vascular Ultrasound System (TIVUS) used for renal denervation.
The study looks “promising,” according to Cohen.
“I think it’s an exciting future for this particular category of products,” he said.
Cohen also serves on the board of Kestra Medical, a wearable medical device company for cardiac diagnostics and monitoring. He joined the company as an independent board member in July.
Cohen plans to put his years of experience running clinical trials, studying the clinical utilization of products and planning successful exits to good use from his advisory role on the boards of these companies.
Cohen, 65, said he has been working close to 70 hours a week for the past 44 years. He intends on slowing down to spend time doing what he enjoys, such as fly fishing and spending time with his four grandchildren.
“I managed to live this long,” he said. “Going forward, I’m going to try to see if I can have a little more balance in my life.”
