Deal boosts St. Jude Medical in pain treatment therapy

St. Jude Medical will pay $200 million for a Massachusetts company's whose products treat chronic pain.

NeuroTherm's main product treats spinal pain with the pinpoint application of heat, destroying nerves sending pain signals from the neck or back, Little Canada-based-St. Jude said in a statement.

Pain management accounts for a relatively small part of St. Jude's $5.5 billion in annual sales. But the potential market for chronic pain management is huge, with an estimated 1.5 billion people worldwide needing relief, said Debbie Wong, an analyst with the investment research firm Morningstar.

Neurostimulation works by blocking pain messages before they get to the brain. Another Minnesota company, Medtronic, is a heavy hitter in neurostimulation, but there is a lot of room for improvement of existing pain therapies, Wang said.