Smith & Nephew Acquires Osteobiologics
BY ARIELLA P. GOLOMB, MD, JULY 11, 2006
Smith & Nephew plc (SNN) announced today that it has acquired Osteobiologics (OBI) for a net consideration of $72.3m in cash, representing ~20x OBI's 2005 revenues of $3.3m. The acquisition is expected to reduce SNN's earnings by $7m in the second half of 2006 and be broadly neutral in 2007.
Based in Texas, OBI is a privately held company which produces resorbable tissue-engineered scaffolds, films and related instrumentation for the repair and replacement of bone, soft tissue and articular cartilage. OBI's PolyGraft® family of products provide a biologically friendly and biomechanically stable scaffold during the time required for native tissue healing.
Today's press release emphasized that OBI's primary product marketed in Europe, TruFitTM CB (a one-step arthroscopic procedure for repairing bone and articular cartilage defects) will complement SNN's endoscopy business. Back in September, 2005 OBI announced an ex-US distribution agreement for OBI's cartilage and bone Repair products with ConMed Linvatec, the current status of this relationship is still to be announced.
