Canadian device firm Trudell Medical has announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Vyaire Medical’s respiratory diagnostics (RDx) arm following Vyaire’s initiation of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
Subject to court approval, the deal is expected to close in the coming weeks, expanding Trudell’s existing portfolio of aerosol drug delivery and lung health devices to include Vyaire’s range of respiratory diagnostics.
Trudell Medical revealed it will operate RDx as a separate business unit and maintain operations in Germany and California. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Trudell Medical subsidiary, Trudell Healthcare Solutions, currently serves as the distributor of Vyaire's respiratory diagnostics and ventilation devices within Canada’s healthcare system.
Vyaire RDx CEO Will Throp said: “Trudell has been an outstanding distribution partner for Vyaire RDx in Canada. This well-established relationship serves as a firm foundation for Vyaire RDx to become part of the Trudell family.”
Vyaire filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US on 10 June 2024. The troubled company said the decision followed “below-plan” performance in the first half of its financial year, a reality that “frustrated efforts” to refinance company debt.
Following the bankruptcy announcement, Vyaire’s group CEO John Bibb said: “Chapter 11 protection will offer us the breathing room we need to explore selling our businesses to capable, well-financed buyers that have the financial ability and stability to execute on the respiratory diagnostics and ventilation business strategies delivering our vital products to customers and patients in need.”
In the months leading up to the bankruptcy announcement, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tagged Vyaire’s AirLife manual resuscitator device and Twin Tube sample lines in the company’s cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) with Class I recalls. This most serious category of recall means that continued use of a tagged device could result in serious injury or death. The AirLife manual resuscitator recall covered over six and a half million devices, including nine products from Vyaire’s AirLife range, while the Twin Tube sample lines tag triggered the recall of 649 of Vyaire’s CPETs in the US.
A report by GlobalData valued the global anaesthesia and respiratory devices market at $12.7bn in 2023 and estimates it will grow to just more than $19bn by 2033.
Trudell’s acquisition follows the announcement earlier this week from US cardiac care company ZOLL that it had successfully won its bid to acquire Vyaire’s ventilator business.
