Dive Brief:
- Zimmer Biomet has launched two orthopedic devices with Paragon 28, the foot and ankle specialist it bought for $1.1 billion early this year.
- The new products, which Zimmer reported Wednesday, add treatments for a type of shinbone break and hindfoot injuries to the company’s portfolio.
- Introducing the devices continues Zimmer’s efforts to maintain Paragon’s double-digit growth and expand its sports medicine, extremities and trauma (SET) business.
Dive Insight:
The newly launched devices are the Gorilla Pilon Fusion Plating System and the Phantom TTC Trauma Nail. Paragon’s Gorilla system is used in the stabilization and fixation of a range of fractures. The company received 510(k) clearance for the latest version of the device in July.
Zimmer’s launch announcement covered the use of the device in pilon fractures, which the company said account for 7% to 10% of shinbone breaks. Some patients with the fractures require primary ankle fusion.
Clayton Bettin, division chief of hospital orthopedics at Campbell Clinic, said in a statement that Gorilla is the second plate on the market specifically designed for primary ankle fusion in the setting of comminuted pilon fractures.
Arthrex received 510(k) clearance for a pilon fusion system in 2021. Bettin said the Gorilla system “offers a lower-profile option that is anatomically contoured and enables stable fixation across both columns.”
Zimmer launched Gorilla alongside the Phantom TTC Trauma Nail, a fixation device used in demanding trauma cases including complex pilon fractures. Paragon received Food and Drug Administration clearance for the latest Phantom model in July.
The company jointly announced the launch with Paragon, reflecting the decision to limit the integration of the acquired business. Zimmer CFO Suketu Upadhyay discussed the company’s commitment to that structure at a Morgan Stanley event last month.
“A lot of companies buy an asset and they talk about keeping things separated, isolated and the culture remains. But then a quarter or two quarters later, everything is integrated,” Upadhyay said. “We’re not doing that. They have their own design centers, their own management team, their own quality management system.”
The decision means Paragon has kept its entire commercial team, Upadhyay said, and Zimmer has not seen any major disruption in sales personnel. The goal is to enable Paragon to maintain the double-digit growth that it was experiencing before the acquisition.
The targeted growth is part of Zimmer’s plan to expand its SET business, as CEO Ivan Tornos explained at the Morgan Stanley event.
“I’ll be really surprised if we don’t double the size of the business over the next five to seven years through organic and inorganic means,” Tornos said. “That is the perfect platform to build new businesses. We already acquired Paragon 28. There are all kinds of opportunities adjacency-wise in that space.”
