Faegre Drinker Wins Trial for Surmodics in High-Profile Merger Challenge Against FTC

On November 10, 2025, a cross-office team of Faegre Drinker antitrust lawyers won a decisive victory on behalf of our client, Surmodics, following a hotly contested trial against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in Chicago federal court.

Following a lengthy investigation, the FTC sued to block the $627 million acquisition of Surmodics, the nation’s leading medical device coatings supplier, by GTCR, a private equity firm. The parties litigated through a hard-fought, accelerated discovery period and pretrial proceedings, culminating in an eight-day bench trial before Judge Jeffrey Cummings of the Northern District of Illinois. The trial took place over three weeks in August and early September 2025 and was the first antitrust merger challenge brought by the FTC during President Trump’s second administration. 

In his oral decision, Judge Cummings denied the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction to block the merger over the FTC’s concerns that the merger would harm competition in a market for outsourced hydrophilic coatings. Medical device coatings, including hydrophilic coatings, provide lubricity to catheters and other types of implantable medical devices; these types of coatings are commonly used in neurovascular and cardiovascular surgeries. 

Judge Cummings determined that Surmodics and GTCR had successfully rebutted the FTC’s allegations that the merger raised competitive concerns in an already concentrated market, and denied the FTC’s request to block the transaction while the FTC further prosecuted the proposed deal in its administrative proceeding.  After Judge Cummings’ ruling, the FTC declined to seek an injunction pending appeal, allowing the parties to close the acquisition.