Boston Scientific ends pain unit auction -- source

* Boston Scientific abandons pain unit auction - source

* Offers came in below expectations - source

PHILADELPHIA Dec 13 (Reuters) - Boston Scientific Corp (BSX.N) has halted an auction to sell its pain-management business due to lack of interest among potential buyers, a source familiar with the situation said on Monday.

Offers had come in below Boston Scientific's expectation, so the company plans to keep the business for now, said the source, who declined to be named because the talks were not public.

Natick, Massachusetts-based Boston Scientific declined to comment on whether the unit was off the market.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) weighed a purchase of the unit for more than $1 billion and decided not to proceed, while other interested parties were willing to pay from $1 billion to $1.5 billion, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the news of the abandoned auction.

Boston Scientific has been reshaping its product portfolio under Chief Executive Ray Elliott as its core markets in heart stents and implantable defibrillators have slowed.

Elliott, who took the helm in July 2009, has focused on cutting costs and paying down the considerable debt it accumulated in the 2006 acquisition of Guidant Corp.

In October, Boston Scientific agreed to sell its business that makes devices used to treat stroke, aneurysm and other vascular conditions in the brain to hip and knee implant maker Stryker Corp (SYK.N) for $1.5 billion in cash.

At the time, some Wall Street analysts said the neurovascular unit sold for about twice the price they were expecting it to fetch.

Boston Scientific also has been making acquisitions, buying asthma device maker Asthmatx Inc in October and announcing plans last month to acquire replacement heart valve developer Sadra Medical Inc. (Reporting by Jessica Hall, with additional reporting by Susan Kelly in Chicago; editing by Andre Grenon) (For more M&A news and our DealZone blog, go to here)