MARLBOROUGH, MA — Boston Scientific announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Augmenix, Inc., a privately-held company founded by a serial Indian-American entrepreneur Amar Sawhney, who serves as the company chairman. The transaction consists of an upfront cash payment of $500 million, and up to $100 million for reaching sales-based milestones.
Augmenix has developed and commercialized the SpaceOAR® System, a therapy used to reduce common and debilitating side effects that men may experience after receiving prostate cancer radiotherapy.
“I am very proud to announce the acquisition of Augmenix today by Boston Scientific for $500MM upfront with a $100MM earnout potential. We founded this company a little over 10 years ago and have now created a category of “spacing” in radiotherapy, that never existed before,” said Mr. Sawhney.
When Mr. Sawhney founded Augmenix in 2008, he was the Chairman, President and CEO of the company, but gave up the CEO role when he focused on his other company: Ocular. He had been running both companies as CEO prior to 2014. After that time, Mr. Sawhney became Chairman of Augmenix, and Chairman, President and CEO of Ocular. Then about a year ago, he hired in a CEO for Ocular and now am serves as Chairman of Ocular.
Talking about Augmenix, Mr. Sawhney said over 30,000 patients have been treated to date by the company’s product SpaceOAR, which is now being used in the US, Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada, and the UK.
Each year, more than 1.1 million men are diagnosed with prostate cancer worldwide and approximately 400,000 men will undergo prostate radiotherapy.
“The acquisition furthers our category leadership strategy in urology and the SpaceOAR hydrogel is a crucial addition to our growing prostate health treatment portfolio of products that improve the quality of life and clinical outcomes for men with prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia,” Dave Pierce, executive vice president and president, MedSurg, Boston Scientific, said in a statement. “The injection of this hydrogel during a minimally-invasive, in-office procedure can reduce the unwanted and unintended side effects of prostate radiation and provide substantial peace of mind for patients and their treating physicians.”
Clinical trials in Europe and the U.S. have demonstrated that the space created by the hydrogel significantly reduces the amount of radiation delivered to the rectum. Additionally, the randomized SpaceOAR hydrogel U.S. clinical trial demonstrated that patients who received the hydrogel spacer reported significantly less rectal pain during prostate radiotherapy and had significantly less severe long-term rectal complications, including zero incidence of grade 2 rectal toxicity versus a 5.7% rate experienced by patients without the spacer.
A single injection of the SpaceOAR hydrogel is designed to maintain the space between the rectum and prostate for three months – within the duration of a standard radiation treatment schedule. The absorbable hydrogel is gradually reabsorbed by the body within six months of injection.
“We are proud of the clinical and commercial outcomes we’ve been able to achieve for SpaceOAR hydrogel thus far, and are excited to drive accelerated adoption leveraging Boston Scientific’s urology and pelvic health expertise,” said John Pedersen, chief executive officer of Augmenix. “The company also has the additional resources needed to further explore expansion of indication to other organs throughout the body that could benefit from space creation – such as gynecological and pancreatic cancers.”
Augmenix, founded in 2008 based on technology from Incept LLC, is based in Bedford, MA, and has approximately 140 employees. Boston Scientific is a global medical technology company.
