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15 SPINE SURGEONS How Dr. Peter Ullrich built Titan Spine — 5 takeaways By Angie Stewart T itan Spine President and CEO Peter Ullrich, MD, built the company to address an unmet need for spinal fusion surgery, according to Wisconsin radio station WUWM 89.7 FM. Five takeaways: 1. Dr. Ullrich came up with the idea to place a titanium spacer between vertebrae during spinal fusion surgery when he was a young spine surgeon in Neenah, Wis. 2. Seeing that the invention could improve patient out- comes, Dr. Ullrich partnered with businessman Kevin Gemas to start Titan Spine. 3. The company now employs 134 people and is a pro- vider of surface-enhanced titanium interbody implants. Its innovative nanosurface technology. 4. In June, Medtronic acquired Titan Spine for an undis- closed amount. 5. Around the same time, Dr. Ullrich was named among the recipients of EY's Entrepreneur Of The Year 2019 Midwest Award. He won the business innovation cate- gory and will compete in EY's National Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in November. n Medtronic aims to take share of the robotics market now and moving forward By Laura Dyrda F or the first quarter of the 2020 fiscal year, Medtronic reported 1.5 percent revenue increase. e company's spine line was up 0.9 percent for the quarter, hit- ting $658 million. It also reported increased Infuse sales on a constant currency basis and is looking ahead to continue making inroads in ro- botics and navigation in the future. Medtronic reported 20 percent growth of the StealthStation navigation system in the first quarter. e O-arm surgical imaging system grew 30 percent in the first quarter. "We think that the whole enabling tech- nology and robotic strategy is where the market is going," said Geof- frey Martha, executive vice president and group president of Restor- ative erapies during the first quarter earnings call, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha. "It's going to cause the market to consolidate around a few players and we intend to lead that and take share now and going forward." e standalone Stealth system for spine and neurosurgery as well as Medtronic's O-arm sales grew more than 20 percent for the quarter. "ese are the products that have been in the market for a while and I think this is the impact of having a larger capital sales force and a lot of excitement around these products," said Mr. Martha. He declined to re- port the number of units sold, but said he was excited about the growth. e U.S. spine business grew at 6 percent for the quarter, and its spine division grew 4.7 percent. "is is how our competitors report and it represents a strong indication that our strategy of offering our en- abling capital equipment with our spine implants is working, as we are growing well above the spine market growth," said Chairman and CEO Omar Ishrak. Mr. Martha said the integration of Titan Spine, which Medtronic ac- quired earlier this year, is going well and its surface technology platform can apply to the broader spine portfolio. e company also appointed a general manager to drive the biologics business about 18 months ago and since then he has invested in Infuse as well as the broader biologics portfolio. At the North American Spine Society Annual Meeting, Medtronic aims to launch multiple products, including a corpectomy device. n 4 recent device company mergers & acquisitions By Alan Condon H ere are four spine and orthopedic company transac- tions in the past month. Linden Capital Partners acquired Collagen Matrix Aug 1. The company's collagen products can be used in a va- riety of applications including the device sectors of neurosur- gery, orthopedics, spine and sports medicine. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Osseus Fusion Systems, a Dallas-based medical device com- pany focused on spine products, acquired SIJ Surgical. SIJ Sur- gical focuses on sacroiliac joint fusion solutions, and includes the Blue Topaz CompresSIve Sacroiliac Screw System, which is designed with aggressive distal cutting flutes and dual lead threads. Generex Biotechnology acquired Pantheon Medical — Foot & Ankle, which develops specialty orthopedic surgery devic- es. Generex secured all assets of Pantheon including business operations, accounts receivable, inventory, contracts and real estate, among others. Private equity-backed medical manufacturer Medin Technol- ogies acquired Advantage Manufacturing Technologies. AMT creates orthopedic implants. Medin acquired the compa- ny through its new wholly owned subsidiary, AMT Medical.n