A US judge has sided with private equity firm GTCR in clearing its acquisition of medical device coatings maker Surmodics, rejecting the Federal Trade Commission’s effort to block the deal, according to a report by Reuters.
The FTC argued the transaction would remove competition between Surmodics and GTCR-owned peer Biocoat in the hydrophilic coatings space — used in surgical tools and catheters. GTCR and Surmodics had proposed a partial divestiture of Biocoat assets to medical device manufacturer Integer to allay regulatory concerns.
US District Judge Jeffrey Cummings, however, ruled that the proposed divestiture sufficiently addressed competition issues and found that the FTC had underestimated the competitive influence exerted by customers developing in-house coating capabilities. The case represents the FTC’s first merger challenge under the Trump administration.
