Philips Acquires InnerCool, San Diego Startup That’s Run Hot and Cold

Royal Philips (NYSE: [[ticker:PHG]]), the Dutch conglomerate, says today it has agreed to acquire the assets of InnerCool Therapies, a once-hot San Diego medical device startup, in a deal with an overall value of $12.75 million.

InnerCool was founded in 1998 and raised about $50 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Credit Suisse First Boston, and other investors to develop medical technology that induces hypothermia. Then the venture went cold. InnerCool’s value was reset in 2006, when San Diego-based Cardium Therapeutics acquired the medical device company for about $6 million.

Philips describes the InnerCool deal as an asset purchase for $11.25 million. In addition, Philips agreed to the transfer of about $1.5 million in trade payables, which usually means bills owed for services or goods, but a spokesman said the company wouldnt elaborate.

In 2003, federal regulators approved InnerCool’s catheter-like device that allows doctors to cool blood going to the brain, which helps reduce the risk of brain damage in patients who have suffered a heart attack or aneurysm. The American Heart Association has recognized such “therapeutic hypothermia” as crucial in improving survival and neurological recovery among heart attack patients.

Philips says InnerCool will be integrated with its Clinical Care Systems business. The company, based in The Netherlands, already provides medical equipment used for comprehensive patient monitoring, defibrillation therapy, clinical decision support tools, and other medical consumables.

Philips, which might be better known for its lighting and electronics businesses, also operates a diversified health and lifestyle business. In a statement, Philips Healthcare CEO Steve Rusckowski says the InnerCool acquisition “will allow us to broaden our offering in emergency care now, and also enable us to provide leadership in promising future applications such as acute myocardial infarction and stroke, which could further preserve heart and brain tissue.”

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.