When Owens & Minor recently finalized the purchase of Halyard Health’s surgical and infection prevention (S&IP) business, the Halyard name came with the sterilization wraps, gowns, and other product lines acquired. With a remaining and robust array of products addressing pain management, respiratory health, and other critical areas of the healthcare landscape, Halyard needed to forge a new identity.
Shortly after the deal with Owens & Minor officially closed, Halyard Health announced a name change. Effective June 30, the company will be known as Avanos Medical. In connection with this rebrand, the company’s stock ticker symbol will change from HYH to AVNS when the New York Stock Exchange opens for the week’s trading on Monday.
To learn more, Surgical Products interviewed Joe Woody, CEO of Halyard Health, soon to be Avanos.
What can you tell us about the new name Avanos? What are you hoping to convey?
Avanos is derived from the words “advanced” and “innovation,” and our new name and brand emphasize the company’s focus on innovating with speed to deliver better, more sustainable patient outcomes. Avanos’ vision is to be the best at getting patients back to the things that matter.
We provide pioneering pain management and chronic care therapies and solutions, with a relentless focus on advancing change in the medical device industry to address unmet medical needs and improve patients’ quality of life.
Our new name and brand align with our streamlined operational approach and our commitment to delivering the very best for patients. I’m excited to work with our talented team to establish Avanos as a market leader in the industry.
When the sale of the surgical products and infection prevention portion of the business was announced, it was touted as step towards focusing on being a pure-play medical devices company. How do you think consumers will see that commitment play out?
The divestiture of the S&IP business was a critical part of our strategy to become a focused medical device company, better able to meet our customers’ needs, while also providing us the resources to focus on the next generation of innovative products. Now, with our singular focus on devices, we’re well-structured and positioned to succeed in the markets where we operate.
Shortly after the deal to sell a portion of the business to Owens & Minor was completed, you announced the intent to purchase CoolSystems, Inc and their Game Ready products. What excited you about the company and how does that acquisition serve the revised mission?
Our acquisition of Game Ready was another exciting step forward in our transformation to a pure-play medical device company. Game Ready’s market-leading cold and compression therapy products, combined with our ON-Q* pain management portfolio, significantly enhances our postoperative non-opioid product offerings and broadens our ability to serve the orthopedic and sports medicine markets.
In addition, this acquisition better positions us to provide innovative non-opioid therapies that reduce or eliminate the use of opioids for surgical patients, helping get them back to the things that matter.
(Image credit: Game Ready)
What should the healthcare industry expect from Avanos moving forward?
We are committed to providing pioneering pain management and chronic care therapies and solutions, with a relentless focus on advancing change in the medical device industry to address unmet medical needs and improve patients’ quality of life.
Our Pain Management franchise works to address the needs of the nearly 1 in 3 Americans who suffer from either short-term or chronic pain. In the midst of a devastating opioid crisis, Avanos is committed to delivering non-opioid solutions, investing in new non-opioid therapies, and advocating for system reforms that will help increase the adoption and reimbursement of these products.
In our Chronic Care franchise, we are well-positioned to deliver clinically superior solutions to improve patients’ quality of life. Our respiratory portfolio is benefitting patients by reducing the chances of ventilator-associated pneumonia, and our feeding tubes are helping patients avoid or minimize exposure – ultimately, getting them back to the things that matter more quickly.
With the divestiture of our S&IP business now complete, we have become a focused pure play medical devices company in attractive high-margin, high-growth end markets with roughly $800 million of acquisition capacity to execute our dual-track growth strategy. We are actively evaluating mergers and acquisitions opportunities through a wider lens, exploring areas that leverage our technologies, help us expand call points and increase our addressable markets.
And finally, as a smaller, more agile company, we’re focused on driving efficiencies and right-sizing our corporate cost structure. This more efficient structure will support our internal growth, help reduce costs in other areas, and speed integration of mergers and acquisitions activity. While we are working to drive efficiencies and reduce corporate costs, we are also making the necessary strategic investments to ensure we are well positioned to capitalize on the opportunities ahead.
