Blue Belt Technologies has seen a wide array of new opportunities this year, and it recently received Frost & Sullivan's 2014 Global Enabling Technology Leadership Award in orthopedic surgery.
Here are five things to know about the award and company:
1. The award represents the company's achievements in leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development.
2. The company's flagship product, its Navio surgical system, provides robotic assistance for partial knee replacement procedures through proprietary CT-free navigation software and a handheld, computer-controlled, bone-shaping tool. Earlier this year, the company announced that Jose Bossolo, MD, performed the 500th Navio assisted partial knee replacement surgery, worldwide, at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Brownsville, Texas.
"Navio has ushered in the practice of advanced, image-free, intra-operative planning through surgical simulation to accurately map the problematic area that needs replacement," said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Bhargav Rajan. "The computer-guided instrumentation prevents the surgeon from cutting out too much or too little of the site, reducing risk of problems post-surgery. However, the true potential of the Navio system lies in its scalability. The flexible and broad-based technology platform expands the application possibilities."
3. Blue Belt Technologies has scaled growth efforts this year. In September, the company signed a worldwide commercial agreement with DePuy Synthes to support the SIGMA HP Partial Knee System on Blue Belt's Navio Surgical System.
4. Additionally, Blue Belt recently closed a senior secured term loan for up to $40 million of capital from CR Group. The company plans to use the funds to "continue our established momentum, grow our commercial footprint and expand our technology platform across multiple specialties," said Eric B. Timko, president and CEO of Blue Belt Technologies. Blue Belt will also use the capital to further collaborate with strategic partners.
5. However, consolidation seems to be the name of the game in the orthopedic device market, with huge merger deals being pushed through. Wright Medical Group completed a $3.3 billion merger with Tornier, creating a mid-size company focused just on extremities and biologics. Other huge mergers include Zimmer-Biomet, which recently named a new leadership team and organizational structure that will go into effect when the merger is final. How smaller players, such as Blue Belt Technologies, will deal with this evolving landscape remains to be seen.
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