Becker's Spine Review

13 DEVICES & IMPLANTS Smaller devicemakers eye mergers in Q3 By Carly Behm L arge spine and orthopedic mergers have closed this year, and smaller device companies have sought to get their own slice of the pie during the third quarter. In July, Xtant Medical and Augmedics acquired three of Surgalign's business segments through an auction. Xtant took the hardware and biologics, and Augmedics took the digital health assets aer Surgalign filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. is month, Restor3d completed its acquisition of Conformis. e deal values Conformis at $2.27 per share. In September, two multimillion dollar acquisitions were also announced. Boston Scientific plans to acquire Relievant Medsystems, which is behind the Intracept spine procedure. at deal values Relievant Medsystems at $850 million and is expected to close in 2024. Enovis also shared plans this month to acquire LimaCorporate in a deal worth more than $700 million. Medtech merger interest is ramping up, and it isn't stopping anytime soon, Frank Phillips, MD, told Becker's. "I think mergers of medtech companies is a trend that will continue," Dr. Phillips, of Chicago-based Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, said. "Many small companies that have a suite of 'me-too' products with a cohort of surgeons using their generic devices add little value to spine care or to improving patient outcomes. As capital markets become increasingly challenging, it will become more difficult for these smaller non-differentiated independent companies to thrive. In addition, as expensive enabling technologies with relatively long development times become ubiquitous, mergers centered around access to these technologies will continue. Mergers have been claimed to limit choices and increase pricing; however, in reality with the high number of spinal companies and the pricing pressure hospitals are able to exert on device manufacturers, it is exceedingly unlikely these mergers will result in higher pricing." n Artificial disc market to crack $1B by 2030 By Carly Behm e artificial disc replacement market is expexted to surpass $1.3 billion by 2030, according to Vantage Market Research. Five notes: 1. e disc replacement market, which was valued at $600 million in 2022, is projected to grow 12.3 percent between 2023 to 2030, according to a Sept. 25 news release. 2. One of the main growth-driving factors is the uptick in degenerative disc disease cases. Cervical disc replacement in 2022 saw the largest share of the market. 3. North America led the artificial disc replacement market in 2022, and the Asia-Pacific region is expected to see the fastest growth between 2023 and 2030. 4. Top companies in the disc replacement market include Medtronic, Orthofix and Aesculap. 5. Additional growth factors named include a growing aging population, advancements in disc replacement technology and the increased preference for motion preservation instead of spinal fusion. n Centinal Spine's global fusion business acquired By Carly Behm Centinel Spine's global fusion business will be acquired by Silony Medical. Silony Medical, based in Switzerland, will take Centinel Spine's cervical and lumbar fusion products, including the STALIF platform, the company said in a Sept. 7 news release. A team from Centinel Spine will also join Silony Medical. Centinel Spine is offloading the fusion segment to exclusively focus on total disc replacement, the company said in a Sept. 7 news release. The deal is expected to close in 45 days. Terms were not disclosed. n Texas Back Institute debuts 3D-printed ALIF implant By Carly Behm T wo spine surgeons with Plano-based Texas Back Institute debuted DeGen Medical's Solar AM implant, the medtech company said Sept. 18. Peter Derman, MD, and Alexander Satin, MD, performed the first cases with the 3D-printed device, according to a news release. Solar AM is designed for anterior lumbar interbody fusions and comes in a variety of sizes and lordotic options. It uses DeGen Medical's proprietary PuriTI material, a 3D-printed titanium. "Solar ALIF incorporates a proprietary additive manufacturing process and superior instrumentation that will be the new industry standard," Scott Blumenthal, MD, a spine surgeon with Texas Back Institute, said in the release. "The enhanced imaging characteristics compared to standard titanium implants is a major advantage by generating less image artifact." n

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