J&J Buys Heart-Device Maker Specializing in Pumps that Treat ‘Heart Attack, Heart Failure’ After ‘Serious Blood Clotting Disorders’ Were Linked to J&J’s COVID Vax

“Abiomed sells Impella heart pumps for treatment of conditions including a heart attack, heart failure and clogged arteries.”

QUICK FACTS:
  • In April 2021, Yale Medicine cited the “growing number of cases of a rare, but serious blood clotting disorders associated with the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine.”
  • The following month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) put “new restrictions on who can get the J&J vaccine, based on a fresh review of data on the life-threatening blood clots that have been associated with the vaccine.”
  • On Tuesday, J&J agreed to buy heart-device maker Abiomed Inc. in a $16.6 billion deal, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports.
  • The caption under WSJ’s headline image explains that Abiomed sells Impella heart pumps for “treatment of conditions including a heart attack, heart failure and clogged arteries.”
HEART-DEVICE MAKER OCCUPIES “FASTEST-GROWING AREAS OF THE MEDICAL-DEVICE INDUSTRY”:
  • “Abiomed, of Danvers, Mass., is in one of the fastest-growing areas of the medical-device industry. The company’s sales rose 22% last fiscal year ending March 31 to $1.03 billion,” according to WSJ. “It would bring about $937 million of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities to J&J.”
  • Prior to the COVID pandemic emerging on the scene in 2020, death rates from heart disease had been declining for decades in the U.S.
  • After the pandemic and mass vaccination efforts, however, death rates from heart disease increased, particularly high among younger adults.
  • U.S. deaths from heart disease spiked in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic after a steady decline from 2010 to 2019, reversing a public health success,” according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2022.
BACKGROUND:
  • The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is “actively monitoring reports of myocarditis and pericarditis after COVID-19 vaccination,” including “reviewing data and medical records and evaluating the relationship to COVID-19 vaccination,” according to the agency’s website.
  • When heart diseases such as myocarditis and pericarditis have been reported, the cases have “especially been in adolescents and young adult males within several days after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna),” the CDC admits.
  • There have been 1,447,520 injuries linked to COVID vaccines, according to data from the CDC.

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