Orthopedic News Roundup 22-Jun-06
BY HUYEN NGUYEN, JUNE 22, 2006
Appointment: Smith & Nephew appointed Michael G. Frazzette as President of the Endoscopy division and a member of the Company's Group Executive Committee. Mr. Fazzette recently served as President & CEO of MicroGroup, Inc., a private, equity-owned contract manufacturer of medical devices. St. Francis Medical Technologies appointed Chester Huang to the Company's strategic marketing and sales in Asia Pacific & South/Latin America. Mr. Huang was formerly a director of sales and marketing in DePuy Spine.
Business Update: DJO Incorporated provided an update on the Aircast integration and impact on financial results for 2Q:06. The company is on target to complete the integration by the end of the year. DJO announced that combined revenues will be between $103 million and $106 million in 2Q:06, compared to reported revenues of $69 million in 2Q:05 prior to the Aircast integration. CryoLife announced that it has now received tissue from over 85,000 individual donors of tissues or organs, since its founding in 1984. CryoLife has been able to provide more than 140,000 cryopreserved cardiac, vascular and orthopedic tissues for transplant, and more than 40% of the cardiac tissue preserved has been implanted in children.
Clinical Update: The Journal of Orthopaedic Research reported a study demonstrating that the Clearant Process' method (from Clearant, Inc.) of terminal sterilization can eliminate infection risks associated with soft tissue allografts while maintaining the biomechanical property of the tissue.
Development & Distribution Agreement: BioElectronics Corporation signed an agreement with Adams BioMedical, Inc. to set up a national network of independent sales agents and distributors to market BioElectronics' ActiPatch™ to the Podiatry, Orthotics and Prosthesis Markets.
Regulatory Update: Last Friday, Orthovita received an FDA approval to market its VITAGEL™ Surgical Hemostat. VITAGEL™ is intended for use during surgical procedures to control bleeding. Exactech, Inc. announced that its InterSpace™ Shoulder, manufactured by Tecres S.p.A., in Verona, Italy, has been cleared by the FDA for U.S. distribution. The InterSpace™ Shoulder is a pre-formed cement shoulder spacer containing antibiotic for treating patients suffering from the complication of infected total shoulder arthroplasty. Zimmer Holdings, Inc. and ISTO Technologies, Inc. announced that ISTO's Neocartilage, a cartilage regeneration treatment, has received Investigational New Drug approval, and the companies will be able to begin human clinical trials.
Miscellaneous: This week's issue of The Lancet featured a Seminar in osteoporosis, which estimated that the number of hip fractures will increase from 1.7 million in 1990 to 6.3 million in 2050. The article pointed out that osteoporotic fractures will place an enormous economic burden on the worldwide health care system, and recently the combined annual costs of all osteoporotic fractures have been estimated to be $20 billion in the USA and about $30 billion in the European Union.
