Smith & Nephew, plc (S&N) is joining the march of ortho robots by teaming with Blue Belt Technologies, Inc.
The partnership, a world-wide commercial agreement between the companies, was announced on July 10, 2014. Blue Belt will support S&N’s Journey UNI knee system in Blue Belt’s Navio surgical system. The Navio system has an open-implant architecture that allows users to select a number of different manufacturers’ implants.
The fight for robots has been fierce as Blue Belt and MAKO Surgical, now owned by Stryker Corporation, settled a lawsuit in 2013. S&N will now compete with Stryker, just as Stryker has disclosed it was seriously considering a bid to acquire S&N. There is no evidence that the agreement between S&N and Blue Belt has any connection to the Stryker/S&N merger evaluation.
Eric Timko, Blue Belt’s president and CEO, said commercial programs with “great partners like Smith & Nephew are important in allowing us to expand our market penetration of the Navio system.”
“The Navio system provides robotics-assistance for partial knee replacement procedures through proprietary CT-free navigation software and a unique hand held computer controlled bone shaping tool. The Navio system”, according to the company, “brings a high degree of implant placement accuracy along with soft-tissue balancing benefits. Since launching in the U.S. market in January 2013, more than 450 Navio assisted unicondylar knee replacement procedures have been performed.”
Scott Elliott, S&N’s senior vice president, Orthopaedic Reconstruction, said, “A concern with partial knees is that they can be difficult to align and balance. Thanks to this agreement surgeons now have a navigation system that helps alleviate that surgical concern as well as a partial knee that directly addresses implant durability.”
According to Becker’s Spine Review, a BCC Research report projects the medical robotics and computer-assisted surgical technologies market will reach $4.6 billion in 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 7%. The U.S is also expected to account for 75% of the market over the next five years. Orthopedic applications are expected to more than triple their market share between 2013 and 2019.
That’s a market worth fighting for. Maybe S&N just made itself a little sweeter.
