Highridge Medical says it has sold its EBI bone healing division to private equity firm Avista Healthcare Partners.
The deal allows Highridge Medical to focus on spine tech as a pure-play company, CEO Rebecca Whitney said in an exclusive interview ahead of the deal’s announcement.
“We’re really excited about where we’re headed,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but so far we’re off to a really good start.”
Terms of the recently completed transaction were not disclosed.
It comes a year after Highridge Medical and EBI (both formerly part of ZimVie, which spun off from Zimmer Biomet in 2022) were purchased for $375 million by private equity firm H.I.G. Capital and launched as an independent company with Whitney at the helm.
Westminster, Colorado-based Highridge’s latest deal “aligns with the company’s strategy to exclusively focus on spine and drive long-term growth through dedicated investment in innovation and expansion of commercial capabilities,” the company said in a statement shared with MassDevice ahead of the announcement.
“Highridge will use the proceeds to accelerate investment in portfolio innovation and commercial expansion,” the company continued. “The Bone Healing division, which specializes in noninvasive and implantable, FDA-approved, bone growth stimulation therapies for spine, orthopedics, and podiatric patients will now operate as an independent company backed by Avista Healthcare Partners.”
Highridge Medical’s revenue totaled approximately $325 million in 2024 when excluding EBI sales, which were about one-fifth of the company’s total revenue, Whitney said.
Highridge Medical reported revenue of $409 million for 2023, which put Highridge at No. 97 on the Medical Design & Outsourcing 2024 Medtech Big 100 ranking of the world’s largest medical device companies.
Highridge Medical’s employee count was 713 that year. The company’s headcount is now approximately 500 after the EBI sale, Whitney said.
But Highridge Medical grew twice as fast as the rest of the market in the first-quarter, Whitney said, though she declined to more precisely quantify that growth.
“We are laser-focused on driving the top line. … We’re officially back to taking market share,” she said, citing new recruits in sales as the “single-biggest driver” of broad growth across the portfolio.
“We’ve been able to attract new talent in both our commercial team as well as the executive level and the board level,” she said. “We’ve got people who understand spine, are passionate about spine and know what it takes to win. And then we’ve been very, very focused on innovation. We’ve doubled our investment in R&D, stood up a bunch of internal surgeon design teams and scoured the market to fill some portfolio gaps, recognizing we don’t only need to be competitive, but we also need a compelling portfolio that is differentiated and will help us take share.”
“We’ve been able to recruit competitive sales talent from multiple companies,” she later continued. “That’s a huge change from the past for us, just being able to tell the story of Highridge and then back it up with the investments we’re making in innovation, telling our story and supporting it with good commercial execution.”
Read more from this interview at Medical Design & Outsourcing: Highridge Medical is betting on this spine tech
What’s next for EBI
For Parsippany, New Jersey-based EBI, the transaction makes sense because it’s “in great hands with Avista,” Whitney said.
“They’ll be great owners and stewards of that business,” she said. “It’ll let them drive the focus they need.”
Avista says it’s hired former Orthofix Medical Global Spine President Kevin Kenny as the new CEO of EBI, replacing Glen Kashuba.
“I am confident in EBI’s ability to advance its leadership in bone healing technologies, driven by strategic initiatives and a relentless commitment to excellence,” Kenny said in a news release. “Our focus is clear as we position EBI as the most innovative leader in bone healing science — delivering solutions that improve patient outcomes.”
Founded in 2005, New York City-based Avista (formerly known as Avista Capital Partners) says it has invested more than $9 billion in 50 growth-oriented healthcare businesses across the world.
“EBI represents an attractive opportunity to acquire a leader in the bone stimulation category,” Avista Principal Garrett Lustig said in the release. “Given our track record of successful corporate carve-out transactions, we believe we are well-positioned to support EBI’s growth initiatives. We look forward to working with Kevin and the EBI team to unlock the company’s full potential and execute on many compelling opportunities.”
Avista’s portfolio includes Convatec (the 51st-largest medical device company in the world) and Angiodynamics.
“Avista partners with businesses that feature strong management teams, stable cash flows and robust growth prospects — targeting healthcare product and technology businesses with clear scale potential across six sub-sectors experiencing strong tailwinds,” the company says at its website. “The team is supported by a group of seasoned strategic executives enhancing the entire investment process through strategic insight, long-term value and sustainable businesses.”
