How a French Rock-n-Roller Became a Medical Device Millionaire

For a brief moment in time (1684-1689) Texas was ruled by the French. A few hundred years later, one enterprising Frenchman returned, bearing items that would help heal the suffering. He too spoke no English.

In France, Christophe Lavigne was a rock n roll musician.  In the U.S. he became best known as the co-founder of the pioneering spinal implant company, LDR.

When he came to Austin, Texas originally, Lavigne along with co-founders Hervé Dinville and Patrick Richard, despite the language difficulties, learned the nuances of diplomacy to establish the innovative start-up spine company, LDR. LDR’s lead product, Mobi-C CDR, was the first FDA approved motion-preserving cervical spinal implant for one- and two-level adjacent cervical discs.

In 2011 Lavigne was named a 2011 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award winner.

On December 2, 2014 Christophe Lavigne rang the Nasdaq Stock Market Opening Bell.

Two years later LDR was sold to Zimmer Biomet for $1.1 billion.

It All Started With a Guitar

With little to do in the village de Pont De Veyle, France, the 14-year-old Christophe Lavigne turned to the guitar, in part because it was portable. “My parents moved our family roughly every two years, so I lost friends and girlfriends, but I always had my guitar. At the end of the day, living in different places was very helpful because I got to see that despite our differences, you really find the same type of people everywhere who pretty much want the same things.”

There were no musicians in his family and no YouTube videos to guide him, so Lavigne taught himself. “I began to play and write songs and then started working with different bands. In fact, I spent so much time on my music that I had to take the baccalaureate—the exam needed to go to university—three times.”

When he finally did get on track, Lavigne did a two-year program in mechanical studies , then obtained a European master’s degree in marketing. “The other option was engineering,” says Lavigne. “I liked biomechanics, but it wasn’t something that I wanted to focus on. At that time, the only products I had were my songs. And since we had no Internet or CDs, I would go directly to record companies and try to get them to listen to my music.”

After completing his university studies in 1991, Lavigne undertook his one-year mandatory military duty. “After this, we lived with my now wife and her parents while I looked for job. I found a position as a marketing manager at a small company that designed the ProDisc—JBS. That is where I met the famed product designer, Dr. Thierry Marnay; JBS’s CEO and founder, Mr.Jean François Jeanson, who hired me in 10 minutes. At that point I didn’t understand what type of products we were selling.”

A Day in the OR Decides It

“On my first day Mr. Jeanson took me to the OR and said, ‘At the end of the day you will either resign or you will stay in this business for life.’ Well, I went all in after that day…and I had a lot to learn. At that time if a surgeon gave you the green light, you could be in the OR and sometimes scrub in. And that is how I learned what spine surgery was…I came to love it because there are always new challenges.”

Working shoulder to shoulder with Dr. Marnay was an adventure as well, says Lavigne. “I spent a lot of time with the colorful Dr. Marnay. Not only was I in the OR with him, but he got me involved in a lot of programs including research and development. It was the first time I was able to participate in product design with a surgeon.”

Aesculap went on to acquire JBS, where Lavigne headed up the spine and neuro division. Following this, Aesculap and B. Braun merged. “I stayed on for two years, but spine was not their top priority, so I decided to make a change.”

So along with Hervé Dinville and Patrick Richard, Christophe Lavigne took their 8,000 Euros and struck out on their own. Still in small town Troyes, the newly formed team had its pick of talent. “JBS was located there and when Aesculap/B. Braun closed its office there were lots of experienced spine professionals seeking employment.”

And their biggest challenge at the time? Bankers!

Lavigne: “Trying to convince bankers that we were going to revolutionize spine surgery was met with, ‘Good luck’ and ‘Shut the door on your way out.’ We took the next 4-5 years to get our initial products ready. One was a non-fusion technology and the other was a fusion product with our VerteBRIDGE Plating Technology; in parallel we worked on projects for the cervical and lumbar discs.”

Oh, THAT’s What Surgeons Are Saying

“In the early years of my spine career, I came to realize that surgeons express their needs in a very specific way. If you are in industry and can translate what surgeons have in mind into a usable product, then you are way ahead of the competition.”

“For example,” says Lavigne, “when we started LDR we came up with the idea to develop a cervical disc. Most of my orthopedic and neurosurgeon friends said, ‘We may not need that for the cervical spine. Fusion works just fine.’ By listening closely to them we could see a huge difference between ‘it works’ and what they actually wanted to accomplish. Yes, fusion had a high chance for success, but the consequences of fusion were not what they wanted.”

“They wanted to remove the pain, but they didn’t want to leave the person incapable of moving. When we went back to them and said that we were not changing the clinical indications but were keeping the mobility of the cervical spine they said, ‘You might have something here.’”

The First Surgery

Lavigne recalls the first surgery in 2004, “The patient did very well, the news spread and we had more and more surgeons calling. Fortunately, we already had lots of connections with key opinion leaders and they recognized that we were spine experts. Non-fusion was a hot topic at the time, but most surgeons had never trained on non-fusion technology, so they had lots of questions. We had some answers…and when we didn’t, we were able to connect inexperienced and experienced surgeons.”

Emphasizing that training was always a major investment at LDR, Lavigne notes, “We wanted surgeons to not only understand the concept of our products, but everything around them—the clinical indications, patient selection, protocol during and after surgery, as well as follow up.”

In 2005 Christophe Lavigne was told by an investor, “You should come to the U.S. It would be better for the company. Just stay for 12 months and then you can go back to France.”

“That’s the way I ‘sold’ it to my wife…but we came and never left.”

Austin, Texas

Settling into this music town in 2006, the Lavigne family took a while to get their bearings. “None of us—not our 8- or 10-year-olds or my wife—spoke any English…and even less American with a Texan accent. But we had tutors and I had my music. I played during that time to refresh my brain…because when you play music you don’t think about anything else.”

With LDR having experienced such great success, it may seem difficult to narrow things down to several milestones. But two things stand out in Christophe Lavigne’s mind. “The Mobi-C approval by the FDA was a huge accomplishment that represented 13 years’ of work. It was especially incredible with the superiority claim that we obtained for a two-level indication. We were confident that it worked, but you never know with an IDE [investigational device exemption] because, for example, maybe one research center is bad at patient selection.”

The second highlight, says Lavigne, was going public on the stock market. “LDR began in a twenty square meter facility in a little town with three employees. Years later we were standing at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square, ringing the famous bell.”

Taking the Best of Both Cultures

Other than Lavigne’s instincts about how to listen to surgeons, what else is responsible for the overwhelming success of LDR?

“First of all, growing and managing a French-American company was far from easy. I had to learn to ‘read’ the different cultures. For example, in France you can be more direct with people…that is expected. I found out quickly that this doesn’t work here. When I first came to the U.S. I met with several reps and I asked a question that, for me, was quite normal. But one of the reps started to cry and my American partners pulled me aside and told me, ‘You can’t say things like that.’”

“People in the U.S. tend to be more positive and are always open to new things. In France, we often like to criticize and end up in tense situations. If I could merge the two cultures, I would take the enthusiasm of the American people and merge it with the detailed nature of the French people. You could say that French people go so deep into something in order to find something to complain about.”

Sound of Success

A musician at heart, Christophe Lavigne says, “All those years of playing music in front of an audience was helpful later because I got accustomed to speaking into a microphone. In France we are not trained to speak in front of people. With music I had to learn to control my stress, so I was already somewhat ahead of the game.”

And another cultural difference that likely pushed LDR toward success? “In France people can have six months or more of sick leave, so there is not as much financial pressure. In the U.S. you have to get back to work pretty soon. Thus, the fact that we had the type of technology that could restore someone’s normal life meant that our company had an even better chance of doing well here.”

Post-LDR Life

“My wife and I finally have a chance to travel together. We have explored many countries and cultures, taking out a good amount of time to pursue our passion of hiking.’

These days, Lavigne and his 23-year-old son share a love of music and spend hours in the recording studio. “My son, who has an international business marketing degree, is working with me on a major project. We should be able to release our music in about two months. As for our 21-year-old daughter, she is getting a master’s degree in equine business master program and revels in training riders.”

Asked if he is out of the corporate game, Christophe Lavigne states, “I am an operating partner at a major European private equity fund, and we have just raised $1 billion. Other than that, I haven’t seen anything particularly enticing.”

Well, he might just have to create it.