At its annual investor conference this past week, Edwards Lifesciences revealed that it is spinning off its critical care business at the end of 2024 to focus on its more profitable structured heart products.

The company sees expansion opportunities for its transcatheter aortic valve replacement solutions (TAVR), forecasting $4 billion to $4.3 billion in 2024 sales. It also is looking to further develop its transcatheter mitral and tricuspid therapy (TMTT) devices, focus more on surgical patients, and invest in new interventional heart failure technologies, as competition from rivals like Abbott, Boston Scientific, and Medtronic grows, according to Reuters.

As a separate company, the critical care division will be able to focus more on and have greater flexibility to develop AI-powered smart patient monitoring solutions and grow its reach, according to Edwards.

“We are proud of the Critical Care team, its rich legacy of pioneering innovation and the contributions they have made to our company, and we look forward to an even stronger future for critical care,” said Edwards CEO Bernard Zovighian at the conference.

Katie Szyman, who has served as corporate vice president of critical care since 2015, will be chief executive officer of critical care following the spinoff.

The transaction will be tax-free, and Edwards is planning to file a mid-year SEC Form 10. The company will reveal more details throughout the course of 2024.

Along with this news, Edwards said that it expects a number of approvals in 2024, including that of its Evoque tricuspid valve by the FDA, as well as CE Mark for its Sapien M3 TMTT device by the end of 2025. It expects to finish early enrollment in an aortic stenosis treatment trial in early 2024 and to present EARLY TAVR data studying aortic stenosis patients at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics 2024 conference.

The company predicts global sales of $6.3 – $6.6 billion in 2024, growing at a rate of 8% – 10%.

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