ARTICLE SUMMARY:
Onkos Surgical is only a bit over two years old but it’s already selling products into a musculoskeletal oncology market that the large orthopedic companies have, for the most part, ignored. The company’s business model is based on a specialty medtech strategy that emphasizes both a fast track to market, a cost-effective manufacturing process based on 3D printing, and the commitment of a CEO who has been dedicated to this underserved market for more than 20 years.
In the summer of 2014, Patrick Treacy and Tony Koblish, both former Howmedica (later Stryker Corp.) executives, sat together in the backyard of Koblish’s home in Pennsylvania. Both had joined the orthopedic giant about 20 years earlier and had worked together before their career paths within Howmedica went in different directions—Treacy continued to climb the ladder at Howmedica/Stryker, eventually heading the company’s global knee business, one of the orthopedics industry’s largest and most important franchises, while Koblish caught the entrepreneurial bug and left in the early 2000s to join an orthopedic start-up, Orthovita.
