On a lighter note, as NASS approaches like a speeding bullet, OTW will be holding its second annual Spine Technology Awards. Where's the entertainment? Oh, TSB forgot, Robin is the entertainment. So the question to our readers is, who will Robin Young be touting this year and whose stock will he be pumping up? Even Mad Money Cramer would be a welcomed sight. Will there be a retrospective on some of the companies that no longer exist? TSB wants to know?
Monday, September 20, 2010
So Who's the Next to Fall?
On September 10th, 2010, TSB published a post entitled, "The Blue Velvets of the Spine Industry." One week later, on September 17th, news hit the street that Applied Spine had retained Gerbsman Partners to solicit interest for the acquisition of all, or substantially all of AST's assets. During the past few weeks, TSB had received a few e-mails from undisclosed sources stating that some employees at AST had already placed their resumes on the street. In addition, to AST, we now hear from a former employee at DMT that this venture is in dire need of capital. With a Clinical Advisory Board made up of fifteen, count that, fifteen of the most prominent names in spine, and a leading PhD, one must wonder if there's trouble in Margaritaville? Supposedly, this operation has already burned through a few million. Anyone not affiliated with this venture must wonder, why a company that has an advisory board made up of the who's who in spine cannot raise the necessary capital to keep this boat afloat? So TSB must ask our readers, if this device is that innovative, why aren't some of these surgeons putting their own money where their mouths are? Have you ever look at this device? One has to wonder, can you insert this device at L5-S1?
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Vegas has Pioneer at 3:2 and CareFusion (beautiful full page ad) at even money.
ReplyDeleteWith Craig Corrance at the helm, I am not surprised. Look at his track record... actually, after nearly destroying Centinel Spine back in 2008, I'm surprised it took him this long to inflict his damage at AST. I expected this news about 12 months ago.
ReplyDeleteWho is "DMT"?
ReplyDeleteDisc Motion Tech
ReplyDeleteIt really shows that a Frost and Sullivan award truly means squat if your shit isn't together. DMT, US Spine, X-Spine, all winners. Need I say more?
ReplyDeleteI imagine AST is done, their page at clinicaltrials.gov says:
ReplyDelete"Company has ceased operation"
That's as of Aug. 10th.
Poor Dr. Panjabi was sold a bill of goods by Tom Woods and JP Timms and then you have Craig Corrance. Obviously, as brilliant as Dr. Panjabi is, he relied on some poor advice for a management team. A good friend of mine and TSB were wondering what does it take for someone to get hired to run a company in spine? As an outsider, his take is that in spine you get rewarded for failure and not for being successful. Go figure. Neither one of these people were transformational leaders. These are transactional people, they micromanage. A start-up or early growth stage company need transformational leaders that work hard but do not exhibit ego or arrogance.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely on point MM. It also used to be- The higher up you are, the darker the suite. Not true in the Spine industry.
ReplyDelete"suit"
ReplyDeleteThe model used to be, develop some 'niche' product; buy docs to use; sell company based on a value which equates to docs using device (which likely benefit from the sale) at some absurdly exhorbitant cost to a well established orthopeadic company looking for entry into the spine market.
ReplyDeleteThe money simply wont support that kind of business model anymore; especially with so much of healthcare reform still in question; not to mention the regulatory costs will likely increase.
The technology has hit a road stop. I am a young man in this industry but seasoned enough to realize that the technology has not advanced past surgeon ability. Good fusion always comes down to surgeon ability.
ReplyDeleteCompanies have run out of unique ideas and the market has proven that unique fusion methods ie, XLIFT, GLIFT, minimally invasive BS or what ever dont change fusion rates, costs or patient hospital stay length.
2011 will be the Year of Biologics. It is the new frontier. "I Decided!"
You go boy! At least someone sees the light at the end of the tunnel. And it's not another pedicle screw.....Amen.
ReplyDeleteTSB did you notice that Hydrocision was sold and there is a new leader and a new BOD. They finally got rid of the mummies and the dummies. Now if they could address their coding issue there may be hope for the old girl.
ReplyDeleteXLIFT huh? Let's try XLIF young man.
ReplyDeleteYoung man, you are right, but id say in most instances, its not even ability, but the surgeons willingness to take the time to do it right.
ReplyDeleteSome surgeons are more worried about doing 3+ fusions a day, more than they are doing them right.
Giving an endplate 2 scrapes, and squirting some glorified DBM into the disc space does not a good fusion make.
5:15
ReplyDeleteThanks for the correction on the misspell. My point is that a new industry standard has not been created. In most cases a screw is a screw...even if its an XLIF.
Centinel Spine is the next company to fall
ReplyDeleteXLIFT? GLIFT? .... typical of "young and seasoned" and the vast majority of the idiot spine sales reps . . . complete dipshits.... probably wondering why a doc will not talk to them about their new "ALIFT" device
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna go slightly out on a limb and say Zimmer Spine will be the first "mid major" to fall. Sooner or later the Big Z will get tired of Spine and run out of lame excuses and focus on their core reconstructive business. After dumping millions into the Dynesys IDE only to get stonewalled by the FDA and the ill advised purchase of Abbott Spine (WTF was that?) ... that one-two punch gave Big Z a standing 8 count. I guess we'll hear if Dvorak and Crines throw in the towel on the next quarterly call or if they continue to preach the "challenging environment" and "Pathfinder II late 2010 release" (seriously ... with the inability to retain quality people and a uncanny ability to retain deadwood ... never mind, I'm sure TSB will post about Z again soon)
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, AST's fate was sealed by the good ole FDA. They are pissed off at all the back door dynamic rods on the market and are 522ing them out. Putting AST's front door IDE on hold is akin to throwing out the baby with the urine tinged bathwater. I'm not sure how that attributes to "bad management", but this site seems to harbor name calling & schadenfreude....
ReplyDelete7:57PM....I'm thinking you are right on track. Agreed that the Spine arm of Zimmer has never risen to the levels or expectations of Warsaw & how many presidents have they had in MN in the last 3-4 years?!?
ReplyDeleteTiming is everything. Maybe time has proven that when you place people into integral positions that are inexperienced in this industry, shit happens. It's always easy to blame someone else, that's the nature of our society. Do I need to use Hydrocision as an example. You know even nice people are incompetent. Where did Tom Woods come from? US Surgical.. So that definitely made him qualified to lead a start up spine company? What qualifications did JP Timms have? TSB could thinks of at least a few dozen engineers that would have served Panjabi and this project some justice, You know the old expression, in tyranny lies failure. What once worked for that old tyrant Leon Hirsch just doesn't cut it anymore. Ask Leon, even J&J kicked his ass for getting too big for his britches. This isn't about schadenfreude, this is about the truth and reality. No one revels in other failures, but when you walk around pumping your chest and acting like a know it all, pay back is a bitch.
ReplyDeleteA young man in this industry....
ReplyDelete"A screw is a screw"? MAST technologies don't change hospital stay?
My god man, you have drank the rotten kool-aid before anyone had a chance to pour you a glass. You are on the wrong side of the battle line if you are screaming this garbage at the top of your lungs on a day to day basis.
With this mindset you are qualified to A. Be a physician owner in a specialty hospital or B. Be the chairman of a committee to commoditize spine.
Good luck friend!
TSB,
ReplyDelete"So who's next to Fall?"
These days, it’s better to read it in the debacle tribune. There are too many venture companies with not enough credibility to even be on the BOD.
"The first step to being noticed is being mentioned." - Stu Shepard
You have better odds guessing the WSOP Jack Link's beef jerky hand.
ReplyDeleteAre there any executives in the industry that people endorse as having done a great job? We bag on everyone here but I don't hear about who has been a great leader. Who can we learn from since so many people are Jackasses? So many armchair quarterbacks on this blog, probably almost all sales reps who wouldn't have a clue how to run a division or company.
ReplyDeleteI certainly do think there are a LOT of horrible people in leadership positions in this industry. It's scary how many idiots I see walking around puffing their chest at spine meetings, all full of hot air. But where are the good leaders at?