Artimplant: Biomet to launch rotator cuff device in United States this week

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, March 22 - Artimplant and Biomet, Inc. said Wednesday that the Sportmesh Tissue Reinforcement, made of Artelon, will be launched globally by Arthrotek, a Biomet company, at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons meeting in Chicago this week.

Sportmesh is a patch designed to be used in surgery to strengthen the repair of an injured rotator cuff in the shoulder. Causes of the injury may include every day activities such as lifting or reaching. The injury also is common among active people and people with physically demanding jobs. More than 300,000 surgical procedures are performed annually in the United States, according to a company news release.

Sportmesh is the first synthetic patch to the market for this indication. Currently, the most commonly used materials are based on collagen derived from animals such as porcine and bovine, officials said.

The device is Artimplant's second product after the Artelon Spacer CMC-I for thumb-base osteoarthritis to be marketed in the United States. The product is licensed to Biomet and is expected to increase Artimplant's revenues, officials said.

"Sportmesh will considerably increase our presence on the market, and will be important for the positioning of Artelon as a biomaterial," Artimplant chief executive officer Tord Lendau said in the release.

Artelon is a unique long-term degradable biomaterial that acts as a temporary scaffold to facilitate formation of new host tissue. Due to its versatility and unique combination of properties - long-term degradation, mechanical properties similar to human tendons and excellent biocompatibility in hard and soft tissue - Artelon offers new solutions to unmet clinical needs in several therapy areas, officials said.

Artimplant is a Stockholm, Sweden, biomaterials company focused on solutions to problems in orthopedic, odontological and reconstructive surgery.

Based in Warsaw, Ind., Biomet and its subsidiaries design, manufacture and market products used primarily by musculoskeletal medical specialists in both surgical and non-surgical therapy.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.