Palmisano Transforms Wright
Palmisano came to Wright from ev3 Inc., where he was CEO. He had just sold ev3 to Covidien for $2.3 billion when he agreed to join Wright Medical. Before ev3m he was CEO at IntraLase and before that, MacroChem. Because Palmisano had sold a number of the companies he led, most Wall Street analysts thought he would just spruce up Wright for a reasonably quick sale.
It didn’t turn out that way.
In fact, under Palmisano, Wright Medical executed several strategic moves which fundamentally transformed the company.
First, in 2011, Wright bought the CCI® Evolution Mobile Bearing Total Ankle Replacement system of Van Straten Medical B.V. for approximately $7.0 million.
In 2012, Palmisano added the very innovative regenerative medicine products company, BioMimetic to Wright. Biomimetic had developed Augment® Bone Graft, an autologous bone graft with recombinant human platelet derived growth factor BB for foot and ankle fusions. It had not been approved by the FDA yet, but it was showing great promise as a biologically active bone graft implant. It was ultimately approved for sale in 2015.
Also, in 2012, Wright converted most of its U.S. foot and ankle distributor territories to direct sales representation.
In 2013, Wright bought UK extremities company, WG Healthcare Limited for about $7.6 million. Then it bought the French extremities company Biotech International for about $80 million.
In 2014, Wright bolted on two more extremities companies—Solana Surgical, LLC and OrthoPro, LLC.
Finally, in 2015, Palmisano put together one of the most impactful mergers in orthopedics—the combination of Wright Medical with the leading shoulder implant company, Tornier N.V., in a complex $3.4 billion transaction.
When Palmisano joined Wright, he was 67 years old. When the proposed transaction with Stryker closes, he will be in his late 70s. He didn’t, as many analysts thought he would, simply dress Wright Medical up for a sale. He took the long view and built a high growth, market leading extremities company with a solid pipeline of technology.
Which, at the end of the day, will make Stryker Corporation one of the leading, if not the leading, extremity implant and instrument supplier in the world.
And the credit goes to….
Wright Manufacturing’s journey is a singular story and one that has had important ramifications to the industry, physicians but most importantly, millions of patients around the world.
Thousands of professionals made Wright the success it became—George Griffin, Jack Parr, Ph.D., John Bakewell, Jim Treace, Dick Emmitt, Jim Treace, Jr., Jim Jacoby, Bes Weatherman, Barry Bays, Tom Patton—to name a very few.
But many more deserve kudos for jobs well done. If you have a story about Wright Medical’s history or people who made it all happen, please feel free to add your recollections to the comments section after this article.
