Thoratec, Danaher Scrap Planned Sale Of ITC Business

   DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

Thoratec Corp. (THOR) and Danaher Corp. (DHR) have agreed to scrap their agreement under which Danaher would've bought Thoratec's division that makes diagnostic cools and blood-monitoring systems for at least $110 million.

The companies cited their failure "to agree about the status of certain aspects of [International Technidyne Corp.'s] quality system and regulatory filings." Also hurting the deal was the delay in getting regulatory approval for a new product, Thoratec said in a statement.

As such, it said "it is in the best interest" of Thoratec, ITC and employees to end the deal and let ITC focus on efforts including getting clearance for that product, the ProTime InRhythm.

Thoratec is focused these days on its HeartMate II pumps, which were approved in January for patients with failing hearts who aren't eligible for transplants. The move opened up a big market for the devices, which already were approved for the smaller subset of transplant eligible patients.

ITC is slower-growing and has lower profit margins, according to analysts.

Shares of Danaher and Thoratec were inactive premarket.

-By Kevin Kingsbury, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2354; [e-mail]

(Jon Kamp contributed to this article.)