Exactech to Buy VertiFlex's MIS Fusion Portfolio
BY LAUREN UZDIENSKI, AUGUST 30, 2010
VertiFlex announced plans to divest an MIS fusion portfolio and related assets to Exactech. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. On the company's website, the Silverbolt system is described as "truly percutaneous" and would augment Exactech's spine offering, which currently consists largely of fusion assets acquired from Altiva in 2007. In 2009, Exactech recorded $27.4 million in spine and biologics sales, which was a 4% increase over the prior year.
The transaction allows Vertiflex to focus on their ongoing IDE study for the Superion Interspinous Spacer, which the company calls their "primary value driver." Designed to treat lumbar spinal stenosis, the Superion can be placed percutaneously between spinous processes in an outpatient procedure. The company recently reported that they were ahead of schedule on patient enrollment, announcing the 150th patient on August 2, with enrollment expected to be complete at 250 patients in early 2011. Early clinical results from the study are "encouraging," according to Vertiflex.
