CONVENTUS ACQUIRES FLOWER (PRESS RELEASE)
Last week Coventus Orthopedics signed terms to acquire Flower Orthopedics. Founded in 2012, Flower became one of the first companies to bring sterile-packaged, foot and ankle implant kits to the US market. Flower has built a line of basic foot and ankle implants for most indications. Recently, the company’s focus has shifted to the in-office amniotic market, where they are looking to compete with market leader MiMedx.
Coventus, an upper extremity company, currently offers a novel expandable fracture cage indicated for proximal humerus and distal radius fractures. In the press release, Dr. Roy Sanders hints at a lower extremity cage in development. Prior to picking up Flower, they also recently acquired the Intrafuse fibular nail from Surgical Frontiers. It will be interesting to follow how this plays out for Coventus and the Flower line over the next year. Will sterile implants ever gain widespread acceptance at these ASC’s? Can these guys break through and become a player in the amniotic market?
ANIKA THEREPUTICS AQUIRES BOTH ARTHROSURFACE AND PARCUS (PRESS RELEASE)
In January, there was another deal that went a little under the radar. Anika, “a biomedical joint preservation company”, known for their injectable HA treatment Orthovisc, acquired both Arthrosurface and Parcus Medical. Most know of Arthrosurface, but many may not know much about Parcus. Parcus is a sports medicine company started by an ex- Arthrex VP in 2010. Their product line consists of suture anchors and tenodesis screws. This combination seems to make a lot of sense, joint preservation and sports medicine go hand in hand. Seems like they are setting themselves up to go after the soft tissue giant down in Naples.
WHO’S NEXT?
While the deals we just covered may not be considered blockbusters, they are relevant given the times and the uncertain future ahead for a lot of the players in the foot and ankle space. With elective surgeries grinding to a halt for nearly two months now and still a long road back to “normal,” it would lead one to believe that more disruption within the market is likely.  Will one of these innovative, pure play extremity companies who are currently burning cash be forced to sell sooner than they anticipated? Who is going to be a buyer after all of this and when will they strike? It is hard to say at this point. One thing is certain, the longer the COVID slowdown goes on, the more leverage the cash rich will have. Stay tuned!
Yesterday, Arthrex announced its launch of www.anklesprain.com and it got us thinking about how Foot and ankle companies are using these platforms to help drive patients to users of their products.