3M has agreed to acquire Arizant Inc., maker of Bair Hugger patient warming technology, for $810 million in cash, the companies announced yesterday.

The deal, expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year, adds patient warming to 3M's existing portfolio of infection prevention solutions, which includes sterilization products, hand hygiene, preps and drapes.

In addition to its forced-air Bair Hugger therapy, Arizant also makes the Bair Paws perioperative warming gown and the Ranger blood and fluid warming systems.

"Patient warming is a highly strategic adjacency for our business and integral to infection prevention," said 3M Infection Prevention President Debra Rectenwald in a statement. Calling the companies "a natural fit," Arizant President and CEO Gary Maharaj added, "Arizant's product development and commercialization capabilities will draw on the strength of 3M's global resources in health care and its deep technology expertise to provide solutions that help prevent perioperative hypothermia around the world."

Minnesota-based Arizant is majority owned by New York private equity firm Court Square Capital.

For more on the infection prevention benefits of forced-air warming, see "The Battle Against SSIs Heats Up" in the September 2010 issue of Outpatient Surgery (p. 60 of the digital edition).

Irene Tsikitas

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