Orthopedic News Roundup 21-Dec-06
BY LAUREN UZDIENSKI, DECEMBER 20, 2006
M&A
Biomet has agreed to a $10.9 billion buyout from a consortium of private investors, including Biomet founder and former CEO Dane Miller, the Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the Texas Pacific Group. The consortium offered $44 per share, 27% more than Biomet's closing price on April 3, the last trading day before the merger talk began. Following Monday's annoucement, Biomet shares fell $0.41, or 1%, to close at $41.59, possibly due to the time to closing: the deal is projected to close in October 2007, ten months from now.
Funding
The Quebec government's equity investment arm, the Societe generale de financement du Quebec, has invested $7.0 million in ORTHOsoft, a Montreal developer of computer-aided systems for knee, hip and spine surgery. The funds will be used to accelerate development and expand ORTHOsoft's sales team.
Pioneer Surgical Technology has raised $30.5 million in new VC funding, which they plan to use to fund Pioneer's IDE study of its NUBAC™ Intradiscal Device, global distribution expansion and product development programs, including motion preservation devices, biologics and minimally invasive surgical procedures. Pharos Capital Group led the deal, joined by Highlander Partners, Hopewell Ventures and River Cities Capital Funds.
Reimbursement
Genzyme's Synvisc® viscosupplement will not have to share a Medicare reimbursement code and rate for 2007; the rate will continue to be 106% of Synvisc's Average Selling Price, calculated from data submitted to Medicare. This reverses a previous CMS decision that would have taken effect in January.
Anika Therapeutics received a similar decision this week. CMS assigned ORTHOVISC® a separate Medicare reimbursement code, Q4086, for its viscosupplementation treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee. The code is effective January 1, 2007.
Service Agreement
Cryolife and Regeneration Technologies have entered into an exchange and service agreement regarding their orthopedic and cardiovascular activities. According to the agreement, CryoLife will cease accepting donated human orthopedic tissues for processing on January 1, 2007 and will work to transition existing arrangements for recovery of human orthopedic tissue to RTI. Likewise on January 1, 2007, RTI will cease accepting donated human cardiovascular tissues for processing and will work to transition recovery of human cardiovascular tissue to CryoLife. Certain physical assets will also be transferred between the parties. No cash was exchanged in the transaction.
Clinical
Medtronic announced its first two DIAM™ Spinal Stabilization System surgeries in a European post market study. These surgeries are part of a randomized, controlled clinical trial that is comparing Medtronic's DIAM Spinal Stabilization System to a standard disc herniectomy. The DIAM Spinal Stabilization System is currently affixed with a CE Mark and available for distribution in the European market, but it is not approved for use in the U.S.
Miscellaneous
IsoTis and its U.S. subsidiary jointly announced an exchange offer by IsoTis, Inc. to all shareholders of IsoTis. IsoTis' shares are currently listed on SWX Swiss Exchange ("SWX") (ISON), Euronext Amsterdam N.V. ("Euronext Amsterdam") (ISON) and the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") (ISO); IsoTis plans to become a U.S. company listing on the NASDAQ during 1Q:07.
CMS announced that the Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee (MCAC) has been rechartered through 2008, which includes updating the committee's role in determining Medicare national coverage. The recharter includes the following changes: the committee has been redesignated from the MCAC to the Medicare Evidence Development & Coverage Advisory Committee (MedCAC); MedCAC now has an explicit responsibility to advise the CMS on coverage with evidence development (CED); and the role of patient advocates on the committee has been formalized.
