Warsaw, Indiana based orthopedics powerhouse, Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. has reached a definitive agreement to acquire privately held, sports medicine innovator, Embody, Inc. for up to $275 million.
Zimmer Biomet Buys Sports Med Innovator Embody
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Under the terms of the agreement Zimmer Biomet will pay $155 million at closing. The company will pay, according to the press release, up to an additional $120 million “subject to achieving future regulatory and commercial milestones over a three year period.” Zimmer Biomet’s management believes that the purchase will be “accretive to overall revenue growth and slightly dilutive to adjusted earnings per share in 2023.”
Embody is a young, Norfolk, Virginia based technology driven company which focuses primarily on tendon and ligament healing solutions for the sports medicine practice.
Embody’s portfolio of products includes products which are designed to improve the healing of orthopedic soft tissue injuries. Its TAPESTRY® biointegrative implant is “a bioengineered collagen implant with a highly aligned & highly porous architecture specifically designed to support tendon and ligament healing.”
Its TAPESTRY® RC is “one of the first arthroscopic implant system for rotator cuff that combines a biointegrative collagen-based implant with fully bioabsorbable fixation and streamlined arthroscopic delivery for partial to full thickness rotator cuff tears.”
OTW spoke with Kristoff Goson, Zimmer Biomet’s global vice president and general manager of extremities and sports medicine, about how Embody sets itself apart from its competitors. Goson told OTW, “The historical challenge of creating biologic augmentation has been balancing biological enhancement and structural performance.”
Goson continued, “Embody addresses prior limitations by leveraging additive manufacturing platforms, such as electrospinning and microfluidic extrusion, to optimize both structure and chemistry creating an ideal microenvironment for healing. As a result of both the unique biology and manufacturing process, to date, there have been no reported negative inflammatory responses to the novel material, which is a competitive advantage as compared with other options commercially available.”
“This acquisition advances our active portfolio management strategy and aligns with our focus on acquiring tech and products in fast-growing sub-markets (like rotator cuff repair) that will be accretive to overall growth.”
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. The companies expect to complete the transaction in February of this year.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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