J&J Company DePuy Synthes Buys San Antonio’s BioMedical Enterprises (Xconomy)
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BioMedical Enterprises, the San Antonio, TX-based maker of nickel-titanium alloy implants used to help small bones heal, has been acquired by a DePuy Synthes, a group of medical device companies owned by Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ). Terms were not disclosed.
DePuy is interested in BioMedical Enterprises (BME) because of the variety of implants the San Antonio company makes out of Nitinol, a nickel-titanium alloy, DePuy said in a statement. When implanted, Nitinol is able to “provide dynamic continuous active compression, which helps to promote healing after bone fixation,” DePuy spokeswoman Christie Corbett wrote in an e-mail.
BME’s implants are able change shape when exposed to predetermined temperatures, which helps with setting a bone, the company says on its website. The company’s public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicate that it has raised less than $10 million since it was incorporated in 1991.
DePuy says BME will provide Johnson & Johnson with a more complete offering for physicians who specialize in feet, ankles, hands, and wrists—the primary targets of BME’s devices. The BME products are inserted into the body with a specialized tool that the company also provides, which is sterilized, pre-loaded, and disposable, DePuy said in a press release.
DePuy hasn’t determined the new organizational structure of the company, Corbett wrote, but added that BME’s employees and technologies are now a part of DePuy. DePuy Synthes already works in the foot, ankle, hand, and wrist markets for bone fixation related to trauma, as well as in markets for orthopedic deformities and tumor diseases, the company says.
BME works closely with another San Antonio company, CellRight Technologies, which makes cadaver-derived bone and tissue grafts. Some of CellRight’s products—which are sterilized in a way that lets the product be used in a patient’s body without losing a protein thought to be helpful in bone grafting—are listed on BME’s website. BME announced what it called a partnership with CellRight in 2014.
CellRight CEO Jesus Hernandez says his company is an original equipment manufacturer for BME, and declined to provide any further detail because of a nondisclosure agreement. Hernandez says he isn’t sure what impact, if any, the acquisition might have on the manufacturing agreement.
The acquisition was made by a DePuy Synthes subsidiary, Westchester, PA-based DePuy Orthopaedics. Johnson & Johnson is based in New Brunswick, NJ.
BME President and CEO Keith Peeples did not return a call or e-mail for comment. Corbett said DePuy would not add anything beyond her e-mailed comments.
