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Stryker Enters IVL, A Valve Institute, and AI-CCTA Lawsuit
April 16, 2026
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Together with
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“Hospitals are putting hard caps on physician compensation, sometimes as low as the 75th percentile, and calling it fraud and abuse protection. Think about what that means. If earning above the 90th percentile is inherently suspicious, then 10 percent of every physician in every specialty must be breaking the law.”
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Kevin Pho, MD.
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Intravascular lithotripsy is becoming a game of giants after Stryker’s announcement that it will acquire Amplitude Vascular Systems (AVS) for an undisclosed amount to add the company’s IVL system to its peripheral vascular portfolio.
- AVS was founded in 2017 and developed the Pulse IVL platform, which delivers high-frequency pressure waves at a rate of approximately 15 per second.
- This allows the device to break through peripheral plaques without the use of an emitter since the pulses travel across the entire balloon, though it still needs FDA approval.
This acquisition may be unique in its PAD scope, since other IVL acquisitions tend to revolve around CAD or CAD+PAD, but it’s still the fourth IVL acquisition in the last three years…
- First, Abbott acquired Cardiovascular Systems in 2023 for $890M.
- Then Johnson & Johnson acquired industry incumbent Shockwave Medical for $13.1B.
- After which Boston Scientific acquired BOLT for $664M (It previously held a 26% stake).
That’s a lot of money being thrown at the still incredibly young peripheral and coronary artery IVL market. For reference, Shockwave made around $1.75B across its entire IVL portfolio last year.
- We don’t know how much Stryker paid for AVS, but can guess it’s probably closer to what BSCI and Abbott paid rather than J&J’s immense investment.
- Stryker also already shelled out $4.9B for Inari Medical in 2025 to bolster its vascular intervention offerings in pulmonary embolism and venous thrombectomy.
These IVL acquisitions also signal a bigger trend in interventional cardiology, one which reminds us that the medtech titans like to invest in technologies that fit within a workflow they already own.
- This means Stryker could market this new IVL platform alongside its existing peripheral offerings which would keep clinical workflows within the same product ecosystem.
- And a cath-lab reputation of quality and consistency could help Stryker market its IVL platform more easily among those already accustomed to its other interventional tech.
The Takeaway
There’s no doubt the medtech world thinks IVL is a frontier-style gold rush, and Stryker’s latest acquisition is an example of that. It’s also another sign that each medtech player wants to offer its own version of a product as part of a broader ecosystem.
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Book a Time with AccurKardia at HRS 26
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