Medtronic Inc. said Monday that it has acquired a majority interest in Biostar, a joint venture that will distribute the medical device giant's products in Turkey.
Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Biostar is a joint venture between Fridley-based Medtronic and Medicall Biomedikal AS, based in Istanbul. Medicall has distributed Medtronic products in Turkey under its own name since 2003, and about 85 of Medicall's 130 employees will be transferred to Biostar.
At the same time, two former Medicall executives have become part of Medtronic Turkey. Ayhan Ozturk, the former Medicall CEO, will be managing director of Medtronic Turkey. Atilla Kucukyalcin, former vice president of sales and marketing for Medicall, will head the Medtronic Turkey CardioVascular Group.
"In key emerging markets like Turkey, creative collaborative ventures like these can help us address the barriers to treatment that patients face today," said Majid Kaddoumi, vice president and managing director of Medtronic Middle East, Turkey and Africa.
"We believe this new relationship will bring us closer to the health care system in Turkey and will help increase access to available therapies, improve outcomes through our academia programs and optimize cost and efficiency for hospitals, physicians, patients and payers," Kaddoumi said.
Medtronic's history in the Middle East stretches for about two decades. Operations in Turkey and more than 20 other countries are managed out of an office in Beirut, Lebanon, that was established in 1995. In 2004, Turkey became the first Middle Eastern country where Medtronic established a direct presence, and that office now has more than 40 employees.
The country is one of the largest in what Medtronic designates as an emerging market for its reporting purposes. Medtronic executives have said they are aiming for emerging-market countries to account for 20 percent of its revenue in 2016. Those markets produced 12.5 percent of revenue in the October-to-December quarter, its latest reported financial period. Medtronic doesn't publicly break out results for individual countries.
Steve Alexander • 612-673-4553
