The Medical Device Business Journal — Medical Device News & Articles | MassDevice
After rebuffing a bruising proxy challenge from insurgent stockholders in April, Orthofix International NV got down to paying off some of the debt that caused the ruckus in the first place.
The McKinney, Texas-based orthopedic device manufacturer, which has operations in Springfield and Boston, said it paid down about $15 million in debt, including a $3 million payment it made ahead of schedule.
Peter Hewett, a board member at Orthofix International NV for 17 years, is stepping down.
Hewett, 73, joined the McKinney, Texas-based orthopedic device manufacturer’s slate of directors in 1992. Orthofix also runs offices in Boston and a production facility in Springfield.
The Food & Drug Administration cleared Etex Corp.‘s orthopedic putty for use in small-bone repairs.
The Cambridge biotech said the federal watchdog agency gave the nod to 1cc and 5cc sizes of its Beta-bsm injectable paste and Gamma-bsm moldable putty, on top of existing clearances for the 5cc and 10cc sizes.
The bone substitute materials are used to make osteo-conductive scaffolds that ape the nanocrystalline structure of human bone. The smaller sizes were developed for hand and foot/ankle surgeries. The products are used to fill voids in bone that the bone doesn’t depend on for stability.
Orthofix International NV inked a three-year extension of its contract to supply bracing products to Novation, a healthcare services contractor.
Novation provides healthcare services to the hospital network VHA Inc., the University HealthSystem Consortium and the Provista group purchasing organization.
Orthofix International NV‘s preliminary first-quarter revenues and earnings numbers indicate flat sales and a slight dip in the bottom line, compared with the same period last year.
The McKinney, Texas-based orthopedic device manufacturer, which has a presence in Boston, said it expects sales for the three-month period ended March 31 to be around $129 million, compared to $128 million for the same period last year.
Orthofix International is one of the companies named in a whistleblower lawsuit accusing the group of bone-growth stimulator manufacturers of reimbursement fraud.
It’s not the first time the Boston-based orthopedics maker has run afoul of federal authorities and the False Claims Act. In 2003, the company agreed to pony up nearly $1.6 million to settle allegations that it submitted false claims to TRICARE, the military’s healthcare program.
U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan is making his last week on the job a busy one.
Just five days before he leaves public service for the oak-trimmed corridors of private practice, Sullivan announced a third guilty plea in the federal investigation of off-label promotion by former sales reps for Stryker Biotech.
The federal Food & Drug Administration shot down Stryker Corp.‘s application for expanded use of its bone-growth putty after a panel of outside experts voted 6-1 against allowing the expansion, the Reuters news service reported.
The watchdog agency’s panel found that bias may have influenced subjects in clinical trials for the medical device giant’s OP-1 putty, a genetically engineered protein used to stimulate bone growth in spinal surgeries.
Stryker’s biotech division is headquartered in Hopkinton.
Stockholders of Orthofix International NV fought back a proxy challenge by a New York-based hedge fund.
The McKinney, Texas-based orthopedic device manufacturer said its shareholders beat back an attempt by Ramius LLC to oust four current board members and install their own people.
Orthofix also runs offices in Boston and a production facility in Springfield.
You’d be hard-pressed to argue that the past decade hasn’t been a good one for medical device companies focused on the spine (Especially with me. Full disclosure: I’m involved in two spine startups. I’m on AxioMed’s technical advisory panel and I’m a minority shareholder of Innovative Surgical Designs. At the time of this writing, I also own shares of TranS1).
Sometimes it seems like you can’t swing a pedicle screw without hitting a new spine start-up. Anthony Viscogliosi recently estimated that are 200 venture capital-backed spine companies.
