In the battle between Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific for Guidant, some people argue the real winner was Abbott Laboratories. John Capek looks back on his days at Guidant and ahead to his new role running Abbott's medical device business.
Interview preview reprinted from IN VIVO - May 2008
For just about a decade—and even longer if one considers its early role as the device business of Eli Lilly & Co.—Guidant Corp. played a critical role in the cardiovascular device industry, establishing itself as a leader in both interventional cardiology and cardiac rhythm management. The company's merger with Boston Scientific Corp.—after a protracted battle between Boston Scientific and Guidant's original suitor, Johnson & Johnson—represented something of the end of Guidant's legacy, qua Guidant, as the company would eventually be split up into various parts. [200510206] [200410276] Yet in a real sense, the true inheritor of Guidant's mantle, at least in interventional cardiology, isn't Boston Scientific, but Abbott Laboratories Inc., which acquired key assets in Guidant's vascular business as part of the deal which saw Guidant become part of Boston Scientific. [200610007] Indeed, if any company has inherited the mantle of Guidant and the prominent role it played in medical devices, it's Abbott Laboratories, which has built a major medical device franchise over the past decade.
If anyone stands guardian over both the former Guidant and its more recent incarnation within Abbott, it is John Capek, who had both a distinguished career, first at Lilly and then Guidant, before becoming head of Abbott's Vascular business soon after the deal with Boston was completed. More recently, Capek was promoted to head all of Abbott's growing medical device businesses, a franchise that includes spine company Spinal Concepts (now Abbott Spine) and glucose monitoring company, TheraSense, among others. [200310094] [200410004]
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