Medical device giant Boston Scientific has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Israeli medical device company SoniVie for an immediate payment of $360 million as well as milestone payments of up to $180 million. Boston Scientific already has a 10% stake in the company.
The biggest winners from the deal are the heirs of the late Shmuel Almagor, Zvika Slovin, formerly of Elron, and European venture capital funds Supernova Invest, Andera Partners, TechWald, and Omega Funds. SoniVie has raised $85 million to date.
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SoniVie has developed a tiny intravascular ultrasound device that can selectively denervate nerves around certain blood vessels to treat medical conditions related to high blood pressure. Among other things, the system can treat nerves around the kidney, one of the effective methods for treating blood pressure. Currently, there are devices on the market that selectively damage nerves around the kidneys, but they use radiofrequency radiation, not ultrasound. Boston Scientific reported that ultrasound energy has the ability to penetrate deep into the tissue, making the treatment more effective and faster.
Last year, SoniVie reported positive results from an initial clinical trial in the US and Israel, and recently began a pivotal trial, which may be sufficient for it to submit the product for FDA approval.
SoniVie was founded in 2014 at the initiative of the Accelmed Fund, led by Uri Geiger, as part of its strategy of building companies after identifying a need from large companies. The technology was initially developed at Cardiosonics, and Accelmed acquired the rights to develop the technology solely for the field of pulmonary hypertension treatment. After Cardiosonics itself went through a crisis, at a time when the market was skeptical about the idea of denerving for the treatment of blood pressure, SoniVie's current investor group led the investment in the company and also acquired Cardiosonics technology, from which it was spun off, including the technology for the field of denerving in the kidney area, its lead product today.
SoniVie has offices in Rehovot and New Jersey and is currently managed by Tomaso Zambelli, formerly an executive at large medical device companies. The technology was developed by Ariel Sverdlik, who subsequently also invented the medical aesthetics technology of Softwave, also based on ultrasound.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on March 4, 2025.
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