Vyaire Medical, maker of ventilators and other lung-focused devices, is offloading its consumable hardware catalog to SunMed, a manufacturer and distributor with a focus on anesthesia and respiratory care.
The deal includes single-use oxygen delivery systems and devices for opening the patient’s airway, such as positive-pressure ventilation masks and tubing. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“Vyaire’s respiratory and anesthesia business brings an impressive manufacturing platform, which will add to our already deep North American manufacturing presence, a strong product pipeline with some of the most trusted brands in the market and deep relationships with customers and distributors,” SunMed CEO Hank Struik said in a release.
Vyaire’s consumable portfolio will be folded into SunMed’s current lines of endotracheal tubes, resuscitator bags, air filters and nasal cannulae. It will also help bolster SunMed’s supply chain: headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with international manufacturing sites in Mexico, China and Europe, SunMed said the addition of Vyaire’s North American facilities will place the company closer to its U.S. customers.
In return, Vyaire said the divestiture will allow it to refocus efforts on its respiratory diagnostics and ventilation businesses.
On a higher level, the deal was channeled in part through both companies’ respective private equity owners. Vyaire was originally launched in 2016 when the respiratory division of BD was bought and spun out as an independent company by Apax Partners. SunMed, meanwhile, granted a majority stake to Frazier Healthcare Partners in 2021.
“The combination of these two businesses represents an important step forward in our ambition to create the leading manufacturer of consumable respiratory and anesthesia medical products,” Frazier partner Philip Zaorski said in the release. “We believe there are significant opportunities for further growth and investment.”
The handover is expected to close by the end of June, pending antitrust clearance in the U.S.
Last year, Vyaire received a Class I recall designation from the FDA, the agency’s most serious, related to potential software bugs in an update delivered to some 4,200 of its hospital ventilators.
The company launched a correction for certain models of its Bellavista machines in late December 2021. Under certain setting configurations for data communication, a software conflict could have triggered the machines to stop ventilation and sound technical failure alarms.
No deaths were reported at the time, but in February 2022 the FDA announced it had received 18 complaints and reports of seven injuries linked to the issue.