Bird Elected ApiFix Chairman

Ted Bird, the former president of Orthofix Spine Fixation, as well as vice president stints at DePuy Spine and Medtronic Sofamor Danek, has been elected chairman of the board of Israeli-based ApiFix, Ltd. Bird is currently the chief development officer at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Institute for Applied Neurosciences.

Bird studied business, economics and political science at the Oakham School in Rutland, England, from 1972 to 1979. He received an Applied Baccalaureate degree from Brown University in 1983, before becoming a sales associate for Dyonics, Inc. His LinkedIn profile says he has, “30 years of international and domestic experience in sales, marketing and executive leadership in the medical device industry. Over 23 years of strong experience, relationships and contacts in the global spinal implants market.”

ApiFix is a commercial-state company with a CE-market minimally invasive treatment system for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). The company is preparing to raise its next round of financing to “aggressively” launch the system in Europe, said CEO, Uri Arnin. The system is indicated for patients with a deformity classified as Lenke Type 1 and/or Type 5 and with a Cobb angle from 40 to 60 degrees.

AIS has traditionally been corrected via major open surgery where 10 to 12 vertebrae are instrumented and fused in operations that typically last six hours and cost in excess of $100, 000. The company says its small implant is attached to the spine at the apex of the major curve using only two screws. This is a short and “comparatively simple” procedure that takes about one hour. On completion of the procedure, the patient returns home after a short hospitalization period (2-3 days).

According to the company, a clinical study of the system recently published in the peer-reviewed medical journal Scoliosis concluded that “there are many drawbacks to the current gold standard of AIS surgery, which are almost nonexistent with the use of ApiFix: considerable blood loss leading to blood transfusions, neurologic deficit including spinal cord lesions, late infections, pseudoarthrosis, limitation of spinal motion also affecting non-fused levels, back pain and disc degeneration in the non-fused spinal segments. Almost all of these complications can be avoided by the use of ApiFix.”

“Given that ApiFix is now positioned to fast-forward its substantial commercial opportunity, Ted Bird’s experience and success in the spine industry should prove fruitful as we prepare to raise our next round of financing to aggressively launch The ApiFix System in Europe, ” said Arnin.