Guidant to Buy Cook in $3-Billion Deal

Cardiovascular device maker Guidant Corp. agreed to buy privately held Cook Group Inc. in deal valued at up to $3 billion in stock, making good on a vow to stay in the race for drug-coated stents.

The deal, which is subject to several legal and clinical hurdles, would give Guidant access to Cook’s drug-coated stent technology, an experimental procedure in which tiny wire-mesh tubes coated with drugs are implanted to keep arteries from clogging.

The deal is especially important to Guidant, which earlier this year halted its own in-house drug-coated stent program when the drug compound it was testing proved ineffective.

Shares of companies that announce a big stock acquisition usually drop, but Guidant shares jumped 5%, or $1.72, to $36.70 on the New York Stock Exchange.