OrthAlign said today it inked a multi-country agreement with Smith & Nephew (NYSE:SNN) to distribute OrthAlign’s KneeAlign total knee arthroplasty devices.
Through the deal, Smith & Nephew gains the rights to distribute the knee replacement as part of its portfolio in 21 countries across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.
“From the region of the globe where the volume of knee replacement is growing rapidly, OrthAlign adds a critical enabling technology to complement Smith & Nephew’s industry leading knee brands such as Journey II, Legion and Genesis II. We believe this partnership will allow Smith & Nephew to provide further benefits to both healthcare professionals and the patients they serve in this evolving and dynamic geography,” S&N knee reconstruction APAC director David Cook said in prepared remarks.
The KneeAlign replacement provides both tibial and distal femoral alignment through a small, palm-sized, single-use device. The comapnies said the device is “highly accurate” for overall mechanical, tibial and femoral component alignment during total knee arthroplasties. The device has been used in approximately 40,000 cases worldwide.
“We are extremely pleased to partner with Smith & Nephew in further making available our award-winning KneeAlign technology to surgeons and patients throughout Asia, Africa, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. There were approximately 380,000 TKAs in these regions during 2015 and this number will continue increasing at a rapid rate as TKA surgery becomes more of an option for patients in these markets. We recognize Smith & Nephew’s strength in providing cutting-edge products and paving the way for new technologies, like KneeAlign, in these markets, so we have no doubt that our partnership will be successful. As always, our ultimate hope is that OrthAlign technology helps to raise the standard of care for TKAs in these new markets,” OrthAlign sales and marketing global veep James Kim said in a prepared statement.