Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Spine Blogger Survey

Recently, TSB was speaking to an industry source when the topic turned to some of the early-growth stage companies that seem to be floundering. Our intent is to turn this topic over to our readers and let their expertise and analysis be heard by the tens of thousands of readers that visit this site and contribute to its success on a monthly basis. So in the spirit of debate, we ask our readers, who will be the next company to fall, or, be bought? Who is a dog? And, who is a thoroughbred? Why?

Considering that this site is frequented by many investors. This is a golden opportunity for them to hear from the "real people" that have a clinical understanding of technology and outcomes, versus the "spinsters" that either analyze or have a vested interest in a company, or a technology in succeeding. So let your voices be heard! Is it a Vertiflex? Is it a Trans 1? Is it an Applied Spine? Is it a Disc Motion?

Let Your Voices Be Heard




45 comments:

  1. TSB: Could you further define who the "real people" are? This group of people who don't have a vested interest in any company or, perhaps more importantly, don't have an ax to grind with other companies? That's a very small group of people within Spine. I'm already imagining that this will turn into an ax grinding session by the "real people."

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  2. Might be Verticor or Spine 360 or both to go down as a result of the DOJ investigations?

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  3. I heard a rumor Spine360 was purchased by Amendia. Is there any truth to this?

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  4. 7:00am - Of course this is going to turn into an ax grinding session. MM's business must be down and getting cut into by these "floundering early growth companies" so he will apply his agenda via posts like these. Did he really need to give examples in this post as to who some of these companies could be? Can the readers not come up with their own examples. He'll continue to deny an agenda.

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  5. Sounds fishy, I am guessing MM is fishing for industry info. Throw that line out and see who bites with information, nice one MM...

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  6. Spine 360 is NOT under investigation! They were acquired over a month ago for over $100 Million. I dont think any company would acquire another if they were under a DOJ investigation.

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  7. Yes, they would. Orthofix bought Blackstone and held back $50M due to the threat of DOJ

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  8. 100 million pesos you meant..?

    otherwise that is a very funny joke

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  9. I don't think anybody with half a brain would pay 100 million pesos for Spine 360. That would be crazy.

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  10. Heard that US Spine received an offer from Cardo-Medical, has anyone heard that?

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  11. The word out West is that Amedica is doing much window shopping in need of some real hardware, has anyone heard otherwise

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  12. Globus IPO is coming, it's inevitable and they have been on the road. Gotta give David Paul credit where credit is due. Maybe some of these other companies could learn a lesson or two

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  13. Heard same about Globus. Waiting for Q3. The only way spine 360 gets bought for $100 mill. is if someone paid 10x's sales. which would be stupid. Heard from a Verticor insider that Amendia was looking at both Spine 360 and Verticor but the investigation put the brakes on that.

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  14. For too long I have assumed that small companies with very little IP or a without a unique product offering is doomed to fail. Then I realized that 6-8 busy surgeons equals a $20 million company in terms of sales. With the high margins, these companies can afford nice "consultancy" deals or well above average stock returns (with very little investment) and stay afloat. TSB assumes all companies must be purchased or show astonishing growth or they are a failure. A $20 million company, in terms of it's investors, in most industries would be considered a success. Unfortunately, these smaller companies have taken a significant chunk (if not all)of our income away. Bash these little companies all you want. Nobody seems to complain when another company is selling ink cartridges or grass seed that are as good as the name brands as long as it benefits us, the consumer.

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  15. anon 5:33, lessons learned from Globus.... Come up with your own IP & use surgeon consulting wisely and ethically. Maybe they would have been a public company by now. And venturing out in other subjects, looks like 510K approvals were a bit slow this past april. What does this say about the industry and it's direction? MSMan...any comment?

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  16. Cardo buying a US Spine is rather entertaining considering they purchased Vertebron in a fire sale. What have they done with that product. No one has a clue about spine considering that they are a recon company. Vertebron's product line was garbage at best (ever see that pedicle screw), no bashing, or as TSB would say just the facts. If true, good for US Spine take the money and RUNNNNNNNNNNNN

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  17. 5:33 must be one of the hundreds of Globus reps that were given 50,000 shares....Hmmm...let's see, if you keep diluting outstanding shares by 50,000 per rep, what is your stock's net worth......10 Grand? and the rumors about Verticor and Spine 360? Come on, these comments must be from employees of those companies....Far from the ethical organizations.....Let's get real folks.....The days of a quick buck are over....

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  18. Anon 6:23PM: Small companies are taking your (I assume sales reps') income away? Huh? So many small companies are the only reason Spine reps' incomes are as high are as they are. Think about it.

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  19. How would anyone know the dilution at a company like Globus unless they were privy to this information, or were an insider? If Goldman was an investor, in all likelihood they are acting as a sounding board. The initial investors were by invite only, and you had a B and C Series. Question: What happens to dilution when you buy back stock, or you buy out some of the original investors? Globus may not be as diluted as one thinks.

    And even if it is diluted, Globus will generate an estimated $300 million in revenue this year. Lukianov can play the part of the braggadocio, yet, this has been the fastest growing company within the industry. No bashing, no axe to grind just the facts.

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  20. with regards to globus, they at one time had roughly 250 million shares outstanding. I passed on investing for that reason. this was several years ago. I dont see a billion dollars market cap for globus which would be 4 bucks a share. My guess is they do a reverse split to jack up the share price. The early guys will do well, as they had a 12 for 1 split early on, and they are in at about 8 cents a share. The early guys took the risk and deserve the reward. The later guys were brought on to pad sales and made to think they too would make a ton on the stock( probably not) They are also facing some serious headwinds, recently losing their biggest distributor and being sued by the former distributor. I also know of a large neuro group that just dropped them to do a surgeon owned distributorship. This was about a 3 million dollar hit.

    Should be interesting to watch.

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  21. >Vertebron is run by Sendro (or is that run into the ground?)
    >Cardo buys Vertebron for pennies (what its worth)
    >Sendro lands at US Spine
    >Cardo looking to buy US Spine for pennies (what its worth)

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  22. Speaking of us spine. Their website (the one with the janitor from central supply on the home page) shows 15 surgeons on their advisory board. 1...5...FIFTEEN!! Seems like a lot for a company selling less than 10 million a year. From what I have heard only 3 or 4 even use their products. What does that say about your advisors if they don't have faith within your product?

    A second thought on the website. The "interim" exec roles listed with picture to come have been this way since mid last year. Shouldn't US Spine come clean and say they don't want to spend money on a photo to put up there? You can take a snap at Sears in an afternoon and put it up.

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  23. There should be a poll on who has the worst company website

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  24. Yes. It's crystal clear that MM has an axe to grind with TranS1!!!

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  25. My prediction of the next failure in spine is TSB.

    Months of promising a new website and platform, and still no revenue despite the readership.

    The polish is off the apple and those who don't know your identity yet soon will.

    Grinding axes and complaining about an industry is fun for a time, but the eventual reality hits everyone that we have jobs to do and families to support and we are going to keep pushing like adults while the kids cry in the sandbox.

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  26. Anonymous 2:15

    You predict.... and you think you are getting 50 m for your crappy little company

    I never read anything about a new website and platform, lay off the hookah.

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  27. Dear Anonymous 1:34

    Your IQ is comparable to the little boy sittin' on the fence in the movie Deliverance. Has TSB ever bad mouth the AxiaLIF? No! Has TSB ever questioned the clinical efficacy? No ! Have I reported a cogent analysis of their revenue? Yes. Have I ever questioned management? Yes? So what's the problem?

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  28. MM. Just the fact that you are being so defensive about it clarifies everything.

    Yours truly,

    1:34

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  29. MM,

    What are your thoughts on the two companies leading the charge in disc regeneration, Spinal Restoration and Isto Technologies? A majority of the spine surgeons believe the answer to discogenic back pain will come from an injectable that can not only stop the disease process, but reverse it.

    I would think that either one of these companies will be a huge winner if their products show any efficacy. I have heard that the juvenile chondrocyte platform is extremely promising. I would be curious as to what others think?

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  30. One more mention of Globus and I am going to puke. The fact that they already have made this much money so far is evidence that crime still pays in this country. Any successful IPO would mean that both the judiciary AND the financial regulatory systems need major overhauls.

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  31. Globus will never get an IPO, its the like the carrot on the end of stick for its investors. You honestly think a man of David Pauls stature would really let others tell him what to do.

    Globus success is a matter, of do what it takes to win, bottom line they dont care about employees, patients, or investors. Its all a matter of parasitic relationships. Just wait and see how this company will play out, it looked like there pipeline is shrinking.

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  32. If Globus goes public, the immediate effect will be that all of the investors will cash out, some making a windfall and others not so much, and then what will be their motivation to continue using Globus? They will have none because the only reason they used it to begin with was to elevate the stock price. The investors were "invite only" but they invited every surgeon that would give them 5 minutes. They have had a good run, but I don't think their model will survive in the long term.

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  33. My prediction is the Cardo falls apart. The people running the asylum are a surgeon and his brother, the money man. A surgeon CEO without any sales, marketing or distribution experience/knowledge. Typical narcissist who thinks that he's smarter than everyone else and can do everyone elses job better than them. Looks like its shaping up to be a ponzi scheme at best.

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  34. If Cardo buys US Spine it furthers your comment about the individuals running the asylum. Why is it that some surgeons can't just stick to medicine and the OR? US Spine jumped the shark over 2 years ago and how they pay their bills is beyond this observer.

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  35. Where’s the survey?

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  36. 12:54, Pay their bills? I don't know how they do it. I have yet to see a surgeon in my tri-state area even try that product and the booth they had at NASS had to cost a bunch. Illusion? Smoke and Mirrors? I'm not sure what term you should use but it definitely applies here.

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  37. @anon 9:55 am--you are right about Globus though it's fair to say that they stole and bankrolled some legitamate products (i.e. not everything is a Synthes clone now). That said, it's very doubtful to me that they would have grown as fast as they did had they not stolen some key revenue generators.

    Re: AxiaLIF--I like the product in theory and the technique but what gets me is a) how Trans1 doesn't have anything to address the inevitable degeneration at the level above and b) you still need to come in posterior (even if it's just facet screws) to provide some sort of torsional stability. What's the clinical advantage over a MIS TLIF approach at that point?

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  38. With AxiaLIF how does one deal with the inevitable patient discussion of "whats the worse than can happen". Penetrating the bowel and you die. Ouch

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  39. The amount of money spine reps/companies make compared to their actual value is ridiculous. Ha, and people think lawyers are bottom feeders! Excellent job bankrupting blue collar families when they are at their most vulnerable. Congratulations hardware reps, you ARE what’s wrong with healthcare in America.

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  40. I have put considerable effort into finding any shred of evidence that the accusations of DOJ investigations are true. I have not been able to find a single document. A single paragraph. Nothing. All I have been able to find is baseless aspersions on this blog.

    Logic dictates that the person who claims something exists is responsible for providing evidence for his claim. If no one reading this blog can provide any such evidence, then the claim must be treated like claims bigfoot exists-- as pure fantasy.

    If there is any truth to this accusation of DOJ investigations or substandard PEEK, there is proof in digital-land. I challenge anyone who is making these assertions to provide a link to the evidence. Surely the local paper in Texas where Verticor is based would have written an article, a column, or at least had a blip about it. That would exist somewhere on the internet. It would be helpful to us all, and would lend something this conversation is devoid of: substance.

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  41. Maybe you should contact the local FBI office in West Texas.. I'm sure they could help to answer your question regarding the investigation with Verticor...

    Hmmm...

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  42. To the douchebag above who ended his comment with a dishonest "Hmmmm . . .", I called the FBI office in San Antonio. You can do it yourself, moron, if you're smart enough to operate a telephone. Here's the number: 210-225-6741. Go ahead and call. Here's what they'll tell you: They don't tell the public when they're investigating a company. How about the DOJ, which other nimrods on this blog have referenced? Ditto. They don't tell the public that companies are being investigated, and they don't tell them the nature of investigations that they undertake.

    So let's consider: A bunch of bitter douchebags on a blog vomit 200 entries of venom about a company, hurling specific allegations and vague innuendo, and THEY HAVE NOT ONE SHRED OF PROOF. Nothing. So I guess we should take what these nameless nutsacks say on faith? OR perhaps we could consider the likely alternative that all of them are full of it.

    I don't think any of the smug innuendo specialists on this blog are SAS/CIA trained intelligence officers. So let's try this: If you can't produce some evidence-- NOT ACCUSATION OR INNUENDO-- but evidence, then don't bother posting anything else. Your jig is up.

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