Generic drugs have been on the market for a long time. What about generic orthopedic implants and instruments?
In an April 4 press release sure to cause as much controversy with medical device sales reps as physician owned distributorships, Denver-based Emerge Medical, Inc. announced the "first-ever line of high-quality generic implants and instruments" for the $2 billion orthopedic trauma market. The company saves customers money by cutting out the middle man and selling directly to hospitals and providers.
Products noted on the company‘s website and manufactured in the U.S., include cannulated screws and guide wires, as well as drill bits. Company CEO and former Synthes sales rep and sales manager John Marotta told OTW that the company focuses on core devices that are easily standardized and have low physician preference. In other words, physicians are not partial to a specific brand of product.
Marotta says the company can save their hospitals customers up to 50% off their current costs. "Hospitals are increasingly pressured to cut costs while continuing to deliver quality medical care. Emerge Medical was created to meet this critical need.”
The company sells directly to hospital administrators, department heads and surgeons to reduce, what Marotta called, "the add-on expenses typically associated with medical device sales forces."
Company CFO Zach Stassen said,
"High selling, general and administrative costs are built into the price of many medical devices, yet there has been little innovation in many core, basic products for over a decade."
While the company believes it has a good business model with current product offerings, they have no intention of stopping there. Marotta says the company‘s vision is to apply its generic device platform to, "the larger orthopedic, sports medicine and spine market; and ultimately to the entire $92 billion medical device industry.”
The goal, says Marotta, is to allow "hospitals and physicians to deliver premium patient care without having to pay premium prices. This vision is akin to other game changing moments in industry, whether it’s the introduction of generic pharmaceuticals or the Michael Dell vision that helped to revolutionize the PC (personal computer) market.”