Boston Scientific could buy Calif. firm for $540M

Marlborough medical device maker Boston Scientific announced Wednesday an agreement with Santa Rosa-based Millipede, Inc. to potentially acquire the California firm for $540 million.

The initial agreement has Boston Scientific paying $90 million to Millipede to acquire a portion of its outstanding and newly-issued shares, but the Marlborough company has the option to acquire the company entirely for another $325 million.

Millipede specializes in the treatment of severe mitral regurgitation, a blackflow of blood caused by the heart’s mitral valve not closing tightly. The company’s device, the IRIS Transcatheter Annuloplasty Ring helps treat that condition by reducing the size of a dilated mitral annulus. 

The agreement includes an option for Boston Scientific to acquire the remaining shares before the first human clinical study of the device, and Millipede can compel the acquisition after the study. 

Those options expire after 2019. Another $125 million would then be paid upon commercial approval of the acquisition.