Edwards sold non-core lines to double down on the unproven TAVR bet

Edwards Lifesciences, already the global leader in heart valves, entered 2008 with a portfolio that included non-core lines. Rather than hunker down, it reshaped the mix by buying into heart-related businesses and divesting everything else.

It kept research spending above industry levels and doubled down on transcatheter aortic valve replacement — a collapsible valve delivered by catheter that avoids open-heart surgery — even while the recession made elective purchases uncertain.

In 2011 the US FDA approved the Sapien valve, the first transcatheter aortic valve prosthesis ever approved. Edwards led the category it created, and BCG ranked it among the 25 companies that most outperformed the S&P Global 1200 from 2008 to 2019.

Ranked among BCG's top post-2008 performers; FDA approval of the Sapien valve in 2011 created the transcatheter aortic valve (TAVR) category Edwards leads.

Made six acquisitions into heart-related lines and divested non-core assets.

Kept R&D spending above industry levels through the downturn.

Committed to an unproven frontier category instead of protecting the status quo.

Freed resources by pruning the portfolio to reinvest in strategic growth.

Divesting the periphery to fund a frontier bet lets an incumbent create the market it then leads.

Edwards became the world leader in structural heart disease, and the TAVR category it pioneered grew into a multi-billion-dollar market. It extended the approach with Sapien 3 and into transcatheter mitral and tricuspid valves.