Over the last 18 months, Boston Scientific and Medtronic each racked up more than $1bn in neurotech-related deals. But they are taking different approaches to their neurotech portfolios. Boston Scientific entered neuromodulation through its 2004 acquisition of Advanced Bionics and has continued to expand through acquisitions. Medtronic, which launched the first commercial spinal cord stimulator in 1968, uses acquisitions, minority stakes, and partnerships to fill gaps around a much broader existing portfolio.
Medtronic’s recent $650m acquisition of SPR Therapeutics shows how far some neurotech categories have moved toward established commercial markets. Looking at the two strategies together says more about where neurotech has matured than either company's deal sheet does on its own. Neurovascular and peripheral nerve stimulation for chronic pain continue to attract outright acquisitions, while novel areas such as brain-computer interfaces are more often approached through minority stakes and partnerships.
Boston Scientific's recent approach has concentrated on building market share in a few key categories. It sold its neurovascular division to Stryker in 2011 for $1.5bn, then continued building its broader neurotechnology position through acquisitions. The past 18 months have been particularly active, with the roughly $533m acquisition of Nalu Medical adding peripheral nerve stimulation for chronic pain and an agreement to acquire Valencia Technologies adding tibial nerve stimulation for bladder control.
Boston Scientific's agreement to acquire Penumbra, announced in January 2026 at an enterprise value of roughly $14.5bn, would mark its full return to neurovascular care and add a scaled position in mechanical thrombectomy. It would be the company's biggest deal since the troubled $27bn Guidant acquisition in 2006. It isn't a BCI play, but it does push Boston Scientific deeper into procedures accessing the cerebral vasculature, alongside an existing business in deep brain stimulation.
Medtronic's position looks different partly because it didn't need to buy its way in. The company introduced the first commercially available spinal cord stimulation system in 1968, while its DBS system became the first FDA-approved deep brain stimulation system in 1997. Nearly six decades of building the business itself set up a different approach to dealmaking. Rather than buying its way into core neurostimulation, Medtronic can use deals to fill in the areas around what it already does well.
In 2026 alone, Medtronic acquired Scientia Vascular for $550m, adding neurovascular access devices, and SPR Therapeutics for $650m, adding temporary peripheral nerve stimulation. Alongside these sit a new partnership with Precision Neuroscience to integrate its Layer 7 cortical interface with Medtronic’s StealthStation and an investment in CereVasc’s Series C to support development of its minimally invasive eShunt system for hydrocephalus.
That fits into a broader dealmaking strategy. Across Medtronic, the company made 16 venture investments totaling around $250m in its 2026 fiscal year. Medtronic has explicitly positioned these investments as exposure to growth areas that could also produce future acquisition opportunities.
Neurovascular and PNS pain are mature enough that both companies are willing to pay acquisition-level prices to compete for them. Stroke accounts for roughly 12 million new cases globally each year, while chronic pain affects more than 50 million adults in the US. Both markets have years of clinical evidence and established reimbursement pathways behind them. Much of the clinical, regulatory, and reimbursement risk has already been worked through. The competition is increasingly about market share.
BCI hasn't reached that point. The clinical and commercial path is still developing, which helps explain why Medtronic's relationship with Precision Neuroscience is structured as a partnership rather than an acquisition. It gives Medtronic exposure to the technology and a way to integrate it with its existing neurosurgical platform without requiring the same level of commitment as buying the company outright.
CathWorks shows how Medtronic has used that structure elsewhere, although the comparison only goes so far. The cardiovascular diagnostics company was already commercially available when Medtronic expanded an existing minority investment into a co-promotion agreement in 2022, with an option to acquire the business if certain milestones were met. Four years later, Medtronic completed the $585m acquisition.
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