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Its executives had nearlg 100 years combined experience in theorthopedic industry. They had mature medical device products with provenh science behind them and a vault full of ideas foranother day. But they were the same as manyother start-ups in that in the beginning much of the investmenrt was from "sweat CEO Stephen Bradshaw says the initial investment was theirf own money and the day-to-day work in the company is theif own, too. "I do everything from waterinvg the plants to making coffee to closinva multi-million-dollar-deal ... to making sure we'vd got something to hang on the wall in the hesays laughing.
The company'w corporate administrator Barbara Albiniak says the learning curvew is steep when a small company like Activre Implants has to develop the same infrastructure that large companies likeSmith & Nephew, already have in place. "I do HR, PR, IT and she says with a smile. "Ww have to have some semblance of knowledge about evert piece to put the puzzle Thatpuzzle isn't easy. Their Memphis headquarterse oversees a research and development centedrin Israel, sales managers in Germany and Italy, and a list of independent, international distributors.
Differentf time zones, different languages and different marketse make fora challenge, but that complicated puzzlew is by design. The Israelui lab is there simplybecause that's where the company's scientistg and product inventor Mirin Steinberg is. To begin sellingv their hip product in Europe made sense simplybecause there'ws a big market there. While these simplicities add up to a cast and set that wouldr make a spy novelist Bradshawsays he's not the only one who though t that plan would work. Steinberg'as science impressed investors and in two years the companytraised $20 million from mostly.
That confidence was garnered as the hip product was so It was implanted in a human a little less than a year aftetr the company was formed and it got to marketthis year. Former Smith Nephew executive and industry insider Jack Blair is one of thosde investors and sits on Active Implants boardof "I liked the material," he says, noting Smith & Nephew had lookede at similar compounds. "The stuff workxs and it is the closest thing tocartilage I've ever Also, they've documented their test results very well and have had reputablr international labs testing it.
" Knowing what you have and knowingg the appropriate channels to prove it is what Bradshawa says gives his start-up an "When you look at our company, we were alreadu 10 years old when we formeds it," Bradshaw says. "We already had science and intellectual properthy whenwe started. Our value was differenty from thetypical start-up." too, because the company has differenf goals, he says. "We wanted to solved problems notsolved today," Bradshaw says. "We didn't want to go and stanf in front of Zimmer and Stryker and thumb our noseswat them.
We wanted to do something that is goiny to solve problemsthat haven't yet been Those problems lie in the gap between the firs t time a patient complains about knee or hip pain and the time they can get a totapl replacement. Doctors don't want to implant a devic that won't outlast a patient, so they dela y the operation. Steinberg's devices can be implanted earliee and with smaller incisions and Bradshaw says that positions his company to take advantage of a marke t sector other companies have 2008 will bethe company's "revenuw year" and the numbers are just now cominvg in. Europe, Bradshaw says, is the third largestg hip replacement market in the worle just behindthe U.S.
and Japan. And, in Europe, Germany and Italgy make up about halfthe continent's totall market. The company's knee product is movin g "nicely" through the regulatory channels. When ready, it will replacde a patient's meniscus, the soft pillow that cushionsw the two bones in the It is expected to be on the Europeam market sometime next ActiveImplants Corp. Web site:
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