Stryker Corporation is to acquire medical device company Concentric Medical in a deal worth $135 million in cash.

Stryker’s purchase of Concentric Medical allows immediate entry into ischaemic stroke, one of the fastest growing areas of the interventional neurovascular market space.

Maria Sainz, President and CEO of Concentric Medical, said: “Combining Concentric with Stryker’s Neurovascular division will provide opportunities to accelerate the development of technology and clinical evidence and will allow the commercial expansion of Concentric’s ischemic stroke therapy globally.”

Concentric Medical manufactures devices that are used to remove blood clots from the brain. The company most recently launched the Trevo Retriever in Europe in 2010, which is the first device to retrieve clots from the brain.

Stryker expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter of 2011, pending approval from regulators.

California-based Concentric Medical manufactures and markets minimally invasive devices that are delivered to the brain to remove blood clots, the cause of ischaemic stroke.

Two new low-profile devices for treatment of ischaemic stroke that can gain access to formerly inaccessible blood clots in the brain have received CE Mark approval.

The MindFrame Capture LP device for clot extraction and the MindFrame Flow LP device for flow restoration can be deployed through microcatheters as small as 10/14.

By enabling neurovascular surgeons to remove blood clots and restore normal blood flow in very narrow vessels, the stent-like wire mesh devices could help to prevent irreversible loss of brain function in patients suffering from strokes.

“This unique device technology offers improved ability to access thrombus through tortuous blood vessel anatomies, allowing for rapid perfusion and thrombus retrieval,” said Tommy Andersson, Department of Neuroradiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.

“The MindFrame LP devices allow me to restore blood flow and preserve brain function for my patients, providing the potential of being the standard in ischemic stroke treatment.”

Kenneth Charhut, President and CEO of MindFrame Inc, commented that the new devices “represent the next generation in device technology”.

Based in California, MindFrame Inc specialises in developing medical technologies for patients suffering from ischaemic stroke.