Edwards Lifesciences has been hit with a $10m penalty to settle a court ruling that determined the company violated antitrust law in its acquisition of JC Medical nearly two years ago.
The life sciences giant acquired the transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) specialist from Singapore-based Genesis Medtech in August 2024
A complaint filed by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with the District Court of Columbia revealed that Edwards acquired JC Medical for an upfront payment of $115m, with an additional contemporaneous pledge to invest $25m into Genesis itself. By viewing these payments as independent, the filing highlighted that Edwards avoided the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act payment threshold to trigger HSR review, then set at $119.5m, meaning the company unjustly skirted the antitrust law’s mandatory notification and waiting period requirements. This waiting period is codified in law to give federal antitrust agencies the opportunity to “investigate and, when necessary, to seek an injunction to prevent the consummation of anticompetitive acquisitions”.
The complaint alleged that Edwards did not publicly announce the deal at the time and purposefully structured the financial terms in this manner to avoid filing the HSR requirements that would have delayed the acquisition. The day after closing the JC Medical acquisition, Edwards entered into an agreement to purchase JC Medical’s key competitor, JenaValve. In August 2025, the FTC sued Edwards to prevent it from acquiring JenaValve, citing anti-competitive concerns.