Implant niche - Memphis Business Journal:

ogarawo.wordpress.com
Its executives had nearly 100 yearsw combined experience in theorthopedic industry. They had matures medical device products with proven science behine them and a vault full of ideas foranotherd day. But they were the same as manyothefr start-ups in that in the beginningg much of the investment was from "sweat CEO Stephen Bradshaw says the initiall investment was their own money and the day-to-dayt work in the company is their own, too. "I do everything from watering the plants to making coffede to closinga multi-million-dollar-deal ... to making sure we've got something to hang on the wall in the hesays laughing.
The company's corporatse administrator Barbara Albiniak says the learning curve is steel when a small company like Actives Implants has to develop the same infrastructure that large companiee likeSmith & Nephew, Inc., already have in "I do HR, PR, IT and IP," she says with a "We have to have some semblance of knowledg e about every piece to put the puzzle That puzzle isn't easy. Theifr Memphis headquarters oversees a research and development center in sales managers in Germanyand Italy, and a list of international distributors. Different time zones, different languages and differenr markets make fora challenge, but that complicated puzzle is by design.
The Israeli lab is therw simplybecause that's where the company's scientist and productt inventor Mirin Steinberg is. To begin selling their hip producgt in Europe made sense simpltybecause there's a big market While these simplicities add up to a cast and set that wouldx make a spy novelisr jealous, Bradshaw says he's not the only one who thoughy that plan would Steinberg's science impressed investors and in two years the company raise $20 million from Memphians, That confidence was garnered as the hip product was so It was implanted in a human a little less than a year afte r the company was formed and it got to markeyt this year.
Former Smith Nephew executive and industry insider Jack Blair is one of thosse investors and sits on Active Implant boardof directors. "I likedd the material," he noting Smith & Nephew had lookedx at similar compounds. "The stuff works and it is the closest thiny tocartilage I've ever seen. Also, they'vr documented their test results very well and have had reputablw international labstesting it." Knowing what you have and knowintg the appropriate channels to prove it is what Bradshaw says givees his start-up an edge.
"When you look at our we were already 10 years old when weformed it," Bradshaw "We already had sciencd and intellectual property when we started. Our valuse was different from thetypical Different, too, because the company has different he says. "We wanted to solve problems notsolved today," Bradshaw says. "We didn't want to go and stand in frong of Zimmer and Stryker and thumb our nosewsat them. We wanted to do something that is going to solvs problemsthat haven't yet been solved." Those problem s lie in the gap between the first time a patienr complains about knee or hip pain and the time they can get a total replacement.
Doctors don't want to implanf a device that won't outlast a so they delay the Steinberg's devices can be implanted earlier and with smallerf incisions and Bradshaw says that positions his company to take advantagse of a market sector other companieshave missed. 2008 will be the company'ds "revenue year" and the numbers are just now comint in. Europe, Bradshaw says, is the third largest hip replacemeng market in the world just behinxdthe U.S. and Japan. And, in Germany and Italy make up aboutr halfthe continent's totak market. The company's knee product is moving "nicely" through the regulatory channels.
When ready, it will replac e a patient's meniscus, the soft pillow that cushions the two bonesz inthe knee. It is expected to be on the Europeanm market sometimenext year. Active Implants Corp. Web