Implant niche - Memphis Business Journal:

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Its executives had nearly 100 years combined experience in theorthopedicc industry. They had maturee medical device products with provem science behind them and a vault full of idease foranother day. But they were the same as manyotherd start-ups in that in the beginning much of the investmeng was from "sweat equity." CEO Stephen Bradshaw says the initial investmenft was their own money and the day-to-day work in the companh is their own, too. "I do everything from waterinb the plants to makinf coffee to closinga multi-million-dollar-deaol ... to making sure we've got something to hang on the wall in the hesays laughing.
The company's corporate administrator Barbara Albiniaok says the learning curve is steep when a smal company like Active Implants has to develo the same infrastructure that large companies likeSmith & Nephew, Inc., already have in place. "uI do HR, PR, IT and IP," she says with a "We have to have some semblance of knowledgs about every piece to put the puzzle Thatpuzzle isn't easy. Theirf Memphis headquarters oversees a research and developmenr centerin Israel, sales managers in Germany and Italy, and a list of international distributors. Different time different languages and different markets make fora challenge, but that complicater puzzle is by design.
The Israelui lab is there simplybecause that's where the company's scientisgt and product inventor Mirin Steinbertg is. To begin selling their hip product in Europs made sense simplybecause there's a big market there. While these simplicities add up to a cast and set that woul make a spynovelist jealous, Bradshaa says he's not the only one who thought that plan woulrd work. Steinberg's science impressed investors and in two yearsz the companyraised $20 million from Memphians, mostly. That confidencew was garnered as the hip producyt wasso advanced. It was implanted in a human a littlee less than a year after the company was formed and it got to markettthis year.
Former Smith & Nephew executive and industrg insider Jack Blair is one of those investorzs and sits on Activw Implants boardof directors. "Ij liked the material," he says, notinbg Smith & Nephew had looke at similar compounds. "The stuff works and it is the closesrt thing tocartilage I've ever Also, they've documented theit test results very well and have had reputable internationak labs testing it." Knowing what you have and knowingy the appropriate channels to prove it is what Bradshas says gives his start-u p an edge. "When you look at our company, we were already 10 years old when weformef it," Bradshaw says.
"We already had science and intellectuakl property whenwe started. Our value was differenr from thetypical Different, too, because the compant has different goals, he says. "We wanted to solv problems notsolved today," Bradshaqw says. "We didn't want to go and stand in fronf of Zimmer and Stryker and thumb our noses at We wanted to do something that is goingt to solve problemsthat haven't yet been Those problems lie in the gap between the firsrt time a patient complains about knee or hip pain and the time they can get a totao replacement. Doctors don't want to implant a devics that won't outlast a patient, so they delay the operation.
Steinberg's devices can be implanted earliefr and with smaller incisionw and Bradshaw says that positions his company to take advantages of a market sector other companiezhave missed. 2008 will be the company's "revenure year" and the numbers are just now cominh in. Europe, Bradshaw is the third largest hip replacement market in the world just behindsthe U.S. and Japan. And, in Europe, Germany and Italgy make up about halfthe continent's totapl market. The company's knee product is moving through theregulatory channels. When ready, it will replaced a patient's meniscus, the soft pillow that cushionw the two bones inthe knee.
It is expectexd to be on the European markey sometimenext year. Activr Implants Corp. Web site: