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Two recent orthopedic announcements—an acquisition by a growing extremities company and a partnership between well-established joint replacement players—stood out as initiatives worth sharing. An acquisition by CrossRoads Extremity Systems and the co-marketing agreement signed by Mathys and BREHM will provide the companies with broader and deeper portfolios.
CrossRoads Extremity Systems acquired a range of FDA-cleared technology assets from Surgical Frontiers, including devices for sports medicine and trauma applications. The add-on acquisition furthers CrossRoads’ strategy to grow its presence in the orthopedic extremities sector.
The transaction includes:
- The KATOR® family of soft tissue-to-bone reattachment products for Achilles tendon repair, ligament stabilization and arthroscopic rotator cuff repair
- OsteoPrecise™ precision cutting guides for bone alignment in small bone osteotomies and fusions
- The SpeedButton™ for anatomic ligament reattachment with strong pull-out strength and a better ligament footprint
- The Metrics portfolio for precise, reproducible restoration of anatomic bone alignment and ligament function in high ankle sprains and ankle fractures
The acquired assets are covered by a total of 16 issued and 10 pending U.S. patents. These products were developed under the umbrella of Surgical Frontiers, which collaborates on development of clinically-ready technologies for sale to exiting medical device companies for their commercialization.
CrossRoads is a Fund IV portfolio company of private equity firm HealthpointCapital, which invested in CrossRoads Extremity Systems in 2019. CrossRoads’ Active Stabilization® technology supports fusion through continuous dynamic compression, and enhances stability through a hybrid construct of a nitinol staple within a fixation plate. Further, the company’s reusable instrumentation and EcoSMART® instrument recovery program promote efficient inventory management and improved economics for healthcare facilities.
“As we continue on our fast-growth trajectory, we are excited to add to our portfolio a range of technologies that have significant advantages over the current standard of care,” said Vernon Hartdegen, CEO and Co-Founder of CrossRoads. “These unique and highly complementary technologies and intellectual property will further round out our product portfolio and drive cross-selling opportunities. The acquisition is perfectly aligned with our philosophy of offering less-invasive surgical solutions centered on better outcomes for the patient and ease of use for the surgeon.”
Mathys and PETER BREHM entered into an agreement to co-market each other’s products for global sale, beginning with devices for hip replacement. The companies, respectively based in Switzerland and Germany, entered into a long-term strategic sales cooperation that will kick off in the first quarter of 2020.
Mathys specializes in primary hip, knee and shoulder implants and ceramic components (as well as sports medicine products), while PETER BREHM’s core competence lies in revision devices.
Initially, PETER BREHM will incorporate Mathys’ ceramic heads for use with BREHM hip stems and cups. Mathys will replace its legacy revision stem with BREHM’s modular revision MRP-TITAN device (pictured above), which has been marketed since 1993. MRP-TITAN can cover a wider range of indications and offer more intraoperative solution approaches than Mathys’ previous option.
“Through this cooperation, we can decisively complement our product portfolios and our offerings on both sides. We will check whether there are possibilities for exchange of other products. Our customers thus benefit from the many years of experience and know-how of two innovative orthopedic companies,” said Dr. Benjamin Reinmann, CEO of the Mathys Group. Marc Michel, CEO of PETER BREHM, added, “Thanks to the closing of ranks between the two time-honored companies, our customers and their patients benefit from the best of two perfectly complementary worlds.”
