ICU Medical will pay about $500m in stock, $1.85bn in cash, and assume certain liabilities to acquire the medical division of Smiths Group. Smiths is also eligible for $100m in milestone payments from ICU Medical. The deal is better than the $2.3bn offer Smiths got from a subsidiary of private equity firm TA Associates earlier in August.

Medtechs took a long look at themselves as they rose to the challenges of COVID-19. How they responded, repurposed and regrouped to tackle the coronavirus was both sobering and uplifting. The lessons of 2020 must be integrated into the digitally-enabled health care systems of 2021 and beyond.

UK anesthesia products manufacturer Penlon has received UK regulatory approval for a new ventilator, having taken up the government’s Ventilator Challenge in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Smiths Medical is increasing paraPAC ventilator production from hundreds to thousands a month to fulfill 10,000 units as part of the Ventilator Challenge UK consortium.