Becker's Spine Review

24 DEVICES & IMPLANTS DePuy claims Orthofix compelled sales reps to break contracts — 5 lawsuit details By Angie Stewart O rthofix allegedly persuaded employees to break their contracts with DePuy Synthes, damaging the latter's ability to conduct business in Texas and Alabama, according to a lawsuit filed Feb. 14. 1. DePuy filed a lawsuit alleging its competitor, Orthofix, improperly converted Dothan-based Southeast Alabama Medical Center — which had been a "long- time" DePuy customer "worth millions of dollars" — into an Orthofix client. 2. Orthofix allegedly did so by hiring former DePuy sales consultants omas Wells and Michael Sewell and gleaning confidential information from them. Both Mr. Wells and Mr. Sewell had signed noncompete clauses in their contracts. "It is difficult, if not impossible, to convert business within a large account like SEAMC overnight without customer relationships, goodwill, specialized training and confidential information to do so, which Orthofix lacked about DePuy Syn- thes' business within this account," the lawsuit states. 3. Orthofix also allegedly recruited Scott Mackey and Miranda Middleton in No- vember 2017, despite knowing they were bound by confidentiality and non-compete contracts with DePuy. Mr. Mackey, who was a sales consultant, and Ms. Middleton, who was an associate sales consultant, are named as defendants in the lawsuit. ey both worked with Longview (Texas) Regional Medical Center, a key DePuy client. 4. Mr. Mackey and Ms. Middleton both resigned Dec. 14, 2017, about one month aer visiting Orthofix's headquarters with some of DePuy's surgeon customers. DePuy alleged the visit was intended to prepare the DePuy clients to transition their business to Orthofix aer Mr. Mackey and Ms. Middleton resigned. 5. DePuy Synthes is seeking compensatory, incidental and consequential damag- es, as well as compensation for legal costs and interest. DePuy also wants Ortho- fix to forfeit all gains or profits resulting from interactions with the four former DePuy employees in question. "As a result of Orthofix's improper and tortious activities, DePuy Synthes is suf- fering immediate and irreparable harm in the form of lost profits, lost customers, lost customer relationships and other injuries," the lawsuit states. n 11 big acquisitions for spine, orthopedic device companies in 2019 so far By Laura Dyrda H ere are the big acquisitions in the orthopedic and spine device space so far in 2019. 1. Medtronic finalized a $1.7 billion acquisi- tion of Mazor Robotics after making a series of investments over the past two years. 2. Smith & Nephew acquired Osiris Therapeu- tics, a bone graft and articular cartilage substi- tute products company, for $660 million. 3. RTI Surgical completed an up to $300 mil- lion acquisition of Paradigm Spine. 4. Stryker acquired OrthoSpace, an Isra- el-based company focused on technology to treat irreparable rotator cuff tears, for $10 million cash upfront and $110 million if the company meets future milestones. 5. Pacira acquired Myoscience, a medical de- vice company focused on targeted therapies for pain relief, for $120 million in cash upfront and another potential $100 million pending commercial and regulatory milestones. 6. Smith & Nephew acquired Brainlab's or- thopedic joint reconstruction business. 7. Brainlab acquired application-specific ro- botic technologies developer Medineering, marketing under the name Cirq, which will expand its reach into the ASC industry. 8. European private equity firm Nordic Cap- ital acquired majority holding in Orchid Or- thopedic Solutions from Altor Fund III for an undisclosed sum. 9. SpineSource acquired intellectual property assets of two spinal implant systems from Kis- co International, a French company, including the L-Varlock Expandable Lumbar Cage. 10. Orthofix acquired Options Medical, a medical device distributor based in Florida, for an undisclosed amount. 11. Kyocera purchased major assets of Reno- vis Surgical technologies related to artificial joint and spine products. n

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