Dr. Crudden is now VP of R&D for DiFusion.
Derrick Johns, the company’s CEO, is a self-described “recovering Investment Banker from Morgan Stanley”. He got into the orthopedic and spine business by way of Medtronic Spine where he was the product manager for the M8 screw system. He later moved to Biomet and then to Texas, where DiFusion is based, to manage marketing at Abbott Spine.
He was part of DiFusion’s founding group in 2008—shortly after Zimmer bought Abbott Spine.
More recently Rich Grant joined DiFusion’s board. Rich is the founder and CEO of BreakAway Technologies LLC (O-Arm), which was acquired by Medtronic.
DiFusion’s Business Model
Given the versatility of zeolite, the biggest risk for DiFusion is probably too many opportunities. We asked CEO Derrick Johns about that. He told OTW, “Our model has always been to provide a superior biomaterial platform to a single vendor such that they can use it to exclusively capture market share. In 2014 PEEK commanded a 73% market share with a single drawback—osteointegration. The ovine data suggests we have solved that issue; our partner could exploit a large portion of that 73% share with ZFUZE.”
In the meantime, DiFusion has launched a TLIF, ALIF and Lateral implant through their distribution network. The company has also a 4 510Ks for a pure PEEK implant and is applying for 510Ks on the same designs, but with the zeolite material.
Like many of our readers, we also look forward to seeing DiFusion in person at the September 29, 2018 NASS meeting in Los Angeles.
