Johnson & Johnson said Monday it plans to bolster its lineup of stroke-prevention products by buying Micrus Endovascular Corp. for about $480 million, marking the latest deal in a neurovascular-device market that appears to be heating up.

J&J’s planned purchase of San Jose, Calif.-based Micrus comes weeks after rival Covidien PLC  announced plans to buy ev3 Corp. , a Micrus rival, for $2.6 billion. Leerink Swann analyst Rick Wise said the Covidien-ev3 combination may have spurred on J&J amid a trend of focusing more on bundled portfolios of products. Get the full story »