ARTICLE SUMMARY:
With the acquisition from Stryker Spine, a $707 million commercial powerhouse at one end of the spectrum, and a small-molecule drug in Phase III clinical trials for degenerative disc disease at the other end, the Viscogliosis are making good on their vision of offering a continuum of integrated technologies for treating chronic back pain.
Stryker’s announcement in late January of an agreement to sell its struggling US spinal implants business to Viscogliosi Brothers, creating VB Spine, reflects Stryker’s belief that orthopedics and interventional spine are more rewarding opportunities than traditional implants.
At the same time, the sale plays to the long-term assertions of VB Spine’s founders, Viscogliosi Brothers, that spine implant companies, despite their challenges, can thrive in the right hands. Viscogliosi Brothers, a family-owned investment office focused on the neuromusculoskeletal space, formed VB Spine recently specifically to undertake this transaction and now owns a mature, $707 million US-focused spine business, which presumably they can integrate with their existing portfolio—although they won’t discuss their strategy publicly so soon after the deal closed.
