Guidant Corporation

Guidant Corporation, part of Boston Scientific and Abbott Labs, designs and manufactures artificial cardiac pacemakers, implantable cardioverter-defibrillators, stents, and other cardiovascular medical products. Their company headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Their main competitors are Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, and Johnson and Johnson.

In February 1972, Cardiac Pacemakers, Inc. (CPI) of St. Paul, Minnesota was formed. CPI was a highly successful start up venture, increasing sales from zero in 1972 to over $47 million and highly profitable when it was acquired by Eli Lilly in 1978 for $127 million. During the 1970s, Lilly acquired other medical device companies including IVAC of San Diego, Physio Control of Redmond WA, and Advanced Cardiovascular Systems of Santa Clara, CA. These companies formed the core product/therapy areas of the Medical Devices Division of Eli Lilly and Company.

In 1994, Lilly had a change in senior management and Randy Tobias, the new president & CEO, decided that Lilly would focus on its pharma and other related businesses. The Medical Devices Division was spun off and went public in late 1994 under the name of Guidant. The new company focused on cardiac rhythm management (pacemakers and implantable defibs) and cardiac and vascular intervention products via coronary and peripheral stents, guidewires and balloon dilatation catheters. Less invasive heart surgery was another small business unit of Guidant. Johnson & Johnson announced that it was acquiring Guidant on December 15, 2004, for $76 a share, at a cost of $25.4 billion. The deal was approved by Guidant stockholders on April 27, 2005. On May 25, Guidant reported 26 cases of implantable defibrillator failure, including one death. The same day, the New York Times published an article accusing Guidant of waiting years before notifying physicians about the problems. On June 17, Guidant issued a safety advisory on seven models of defibrillator, followed a week later by advising doctors to discontinue use of four models. The scope of the problems steadily increased, and on July 18, 2005, Guidant issued a warning for nine different models of pacemakers from 1997 to 2000. The next day, Johnson & Johnson warned that the acquisition may be delayed due to these issues. On September 22, Guidant issued safety advisories and recalls for 170,000 of their pacemakers, 56% of their total pacemakers. On October 18, Johnson & Johnson gave an announcement that they were exploring alternatives to the acquisition, followed by a November 2 warning that they might pull out of the deal due to the regulatory issues and legal liabilities.

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