Amedica Corp. officials announced the company has entered into an asset purchase agreement with CTL Medical, a Dallas, Texas-based privately held medical device manufacturer that focuses on the spine implant and instrument market, whereby CTL Medical will acquire all of Amedica’s commercial spine business for total consideration of up to $10 million. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2018, and is subject to usual and customary due diligence and closing conditions.

The agreement will make CTL Medical the exclusive owner of Amedica’s portfolio of metal and silicon nitride spine products, with access to future silicon nitride spine technologies. As part of the transaction, CTL Medical will acquire Amedica’s entire existing inventory of spine products, including US and OUS regulatory clearances and intellectual property related to such. Amedica’s products, which are presently sold under the brand names of Taurus, Preference, and Valeo will be transferred to CTL Medical, while manufacturing, R&D, and all intellectual property related to the core biomaterial technology of silicon nitride will remain with Amedica in Salt Lake City. Amedica will serve as CTL’s exclusive OEM provider of silicon nitride products.

Following the purchase, CTL Medical will change its name to CTL Amedica. Amedica will re-position under a new name that is reflective of the breadth of its technology and potential applications.

“The transaction makes strategic sense, by monetizing our commercial spine sales organization and allowing Amedica to focus on its core biomaterials and OEM business,” says Dr. Sonny Bal, chairman of the Board of Directors of Amedica. “Combining the mutually complementary products, customers, and sales regions of the two companies will offer significant accretive value to our shareholders. The addition of a highly-differentiated silicon nitride and metal product line to CTL Medical’s complete offering of spine surgery implants and instruments will benefit both companies, as well as our surgeon customers. Amedica’s products and scientific data have established that silicon nitride resists bacteria, promotes bone healing, and has superior clinical outcomes. CTL Medical is best positioned to profitably leverage these advantages in the retail spine market.

“Going forward, Amedica will actively support spine sales by CTL Medical, specifically through surgeon education, peer-forums, publications, and research related to silicon nitride. Divesting the sales organization will drive down costs, while allowing Amedica to focus on additional OEM revenue opportunities outside of spine, such as in the dental and arthroplasty markets. As additional downstream opportunities with CTL Medical become apparent in the future, they will be explored as well.”

“CTL Medical is a fast-growing, profitable company, with a complete line of FDA 510k cleared, market-tested spine products, in-house manufacturing facilities and an experienced sales team. Adding the credibility of Amedica’s products and technology, to which over 70 peer-reviewed publications already attest, to our product portfolio will generate new opportunities both in the U.S. and overseas,” says Daniel Chon, president and CEO of CTL Medical. “Our team was deeply impressed at how far Amedica has taken its technology, in terms of breadth of application, as well as the quality, discipline, and depth of Amedica’s scientific inquiry. Onward, our goal is to apply the attributes of silicon nitride across our entire product line. CTL Medical will be the only company worldwide to offer such technology, further strengthening our position as an industry leader.”

Amedica is an innovative biomaterials and OEM company that develops and commercializes silicon nitride for various biomedical applications including orthopedic, dental and arthroplasty. CTL Medical is a forward-thinking medical device design, development and manufacturing company that produces a full line of cervical, thoracic, and lumbar products at its manufacturing headquarters in Dallas, Texas.

Chicago, Illinois - GIE Media had nearly 500 runners and walkers attend Miles for Manufacturing (M4M), a 5K run/walk that allows IMTS attendees and exhibitors to support a wonderful cause. 

Since its debut at IMTS 2014, M4M has been held at meetings throughout the country and has raised more than $60,000 to benefit middle school, high school, and technical college programs that promote careers in manufacturing.

Exceeding its goal, the 2018 race raised $28,000. 

Proceeds from this year's race will support FIRST® Illinois robotics teams, FIRST® Indiana robotics teams, the Chicago Pre-College Science and Engineering Program, and STEM middle schools in the Chicago Public School System (CPS), Penn High School First Robotics Team 135, and Bionics 4 Education from FESTO. Donations are distributed by Smartforce Development at AMT.

Brian List won the race, Jose Mari Viniegra finished second, and Matt McMillian came in third. 

Thank you to all of our sponsors and participants!

Can prosthetics be intelligent? Yes, they can.

“Intelligent prosthetics are prosthetics that perceive their surroundings via sensors. Based on these perceptions, they then adapt their functions appropriately to meet the patients’ needs,” explains Prof. Arndt Schilling, head of research and development at University Medical Center Göttingen’s Clinic for Trauma Surgery, Orthopedics and Plastic Surgery, and president of the German Academy for Osteology and Rheumatology Sciences.

Schilling is one of the more than 100 international speakers at the Medica Connected Healthcare Forum. With more than 5,000 exhibitors, Medica is the world’s leading medical trade fair held annually in Düsseldorf, Germany, November 12-15, 2018. The forum is an established part of Medica’s program and focuses on the latest findings, technologies, and solutions to ensure interconnected and mobile healthcare. Top trends and innovative products are the topic of lectures presented in the exhibition area of the Forum.

On November 12 and 13, the Medica Connected Healthcare Forum will focus on personalized medicine for the treatment of chronic diseases and appropriate health monitoring, among other topics. ResMed, for example, offers solutions for sleep apnea as well as non-invasive ventilators for home use (mechanical ventilation). Thanks to sleep onset detection, these devices deliver a low pressure until the user falls asleep and then increase the pressure to the prescribed value. At the same time, integrated radio technology sends the therapy data to the caregiver. Users can change the device’s settings, check that the device is working properly, and solve problems, helping ensure the therapy’s quality. Andreas Grimm from ResMed will focus on how innovative CPAP can improve the mobility of patients with sleep apnea.

Mild electrical impulses counter depression
Korean company Ybrain uses neurostimulation to treat depression. Applied transcranial direct-current stimulation is recognized by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Ybrain has developed the Mindd headband. The device emits mild electrical impulses to the frontal brain lobe – an area associated with depression – shocking the lobe out of its depressive inactivity. The system is connected to a smart phone app allowing users to evaluate the intensity of their depression on a scale, allowing doctors to monitor the treatment’s progress. On Nov. 12, Kiwon Lee, managing director of Ybrain, will explain these devices for non-invasive brain and nerve stimulation.

Measuring blood pressure without cuffs
Extensive monitoring makes sense in many areas, such as in healthcare, sport, when treating diseases, and rehabilitation. ViCardio states that it is the only wearable blood pressure monitor that can be worn across a long period of time using an optical biosensor measures, not the traditional inflatable cuff. ViCardio co-founder Dr. Sandeep Shah will portray the future of blood pressure monitoring.

Biovotion offers a mini-hospital on the upper arm – a medical device measuring parameters such as heart rate, oxygen in the blood, stress levels, or sleep rhythms. The values are recorded via the Everion armband – all day, every day – and are then analyzed. Anika Uhde from Biovotion will explain how this works.

Dynostics, a smart analyzing device with accompanying app, is a solution for spiroergometry (lung function) and metabolic analyses. It can assist in shaping medical training therapies or giving nutrition recommendations based on metabolic values that have been professionally determined. Manfred Günther from Dynostics will explain the significance of performance and metabolic diagnostics.

Medical technology moves to smart band aids and bandagesIntelligent patch solutions are currently conquering numerous medical application fields. Health Care Originals offers an advanced patch to support asthma patients. This wearable technology records symptoms such as coughing, breathing patterns, heartbeat, and more, and is an early warning system for asthmatic attacks. If values deviate from the norm, the wearer receives this information at an early stage to prevent the attack or lessen its intensity. There is also an option to notify someone and it records the use of the inhaler.

On November 13, everything at the Medica Connected Healthcare Forum will revolve around smart patches – band aids and bandages – in healthcare as a whole. They can be used in rehabilitation in endoprosthetics, like TracPatch. This allows patients’ progress to be tracked after the operation, for example when they do the necessary exercises at home. In this case, the smart patches record the joint’s agility and deflection angle, for example. Measuring body temperature can give an indication on inflammations, making this an ideal device to use for training purposes or in mobilization therapy after an operation.

At Karl Otto Braun, the band aid itself is smart and changes color according to body temperature, which is helpful when there are inflammations underneath it. Dr. Eng. Marcin Meyer (Karl Otto Braun) illustrates the role of smart textiles in wireless health monitoring at the Medica Connectect Healthcare Forum.

CyMedica’s forum presentation will support the fact that bandages are also becoming smart. They offer a post-op knee support that stimulates the muscle wirelessly and can be used after an operation – all controlled via an app that tracks therapy progress.

In contrast, the solutions and devices by Kinvent monitor muscle power. A muscle dynamometer and a handhold to measure hand strength can give doctors, physiotherapists, and rehabilitation centers an indication on whether patients are carrying out their exercises at home correctly and how to evaluate the therapy progress.  

However, wearing bandages constantly can hurt the skin. For this reason, the company Covestro addresses this subject at the Medica Connected Healthcare Forum. With the right choice of materials and manufacturing technology, they develop adhesives that adhere securely to the body, are skin-friendly, and equipped with fully functional sensors.

The German Machine Tool Builders’ Association (VDW) will host EMO Hannover Sept. 16-21, 2019, on behalf of the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries (Cecimo).

Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, executive director of the VDW, gave details at an IMTS 2018 press conference.

EMO Hannover 2019 will present technologies for the intelligent factory with the aim of raising productivity, improving quality, and increasing flexibility. The focus will be on Big Data, data analysis and data management, industrial security and industrial cloud services, process monitoring and predictive maintenance, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

A separate Internet of Things (IoT) in Production exhibition area will showcase companies in control technology, software, and automation. A forum on the latest Industry 4.0 trends will run throughout EMO Hannover 2019.

A year ago, VDW launched the Connectivity for Industry 4.0 project with eight well-known German machine tool manufacturers and major control suppliers. The aim is to develop an internationally recognized interface standard – a common language for Industry 4.0 in the machine tool industry – to ensure neutral and open access. The project is to present its recommendations at EMO Hannover 2019.

The trade show also will present start-up companies with good business ideas to potential investors, sponsors, and cooperation partners.

The Club of Metalworking is the VDW’s latest initiative; launched at the end of May to provide an exclusive service to potential trade fair visitors. Membership is free, yet offers benefits including free tickets to EMO Hannover, free local public transport to visit the show, club lounge, and exclusive newsletter. Conferences are being planned as well. Register at www.clubofmetalworking.com.

EMO Hannover showcases the largest range of technologies for industrial production in the world. More than 2,200 exhibitors from 44 countries presented their machines, solutions, and services at the last EMO Hannover in 2017, with 72% of the exhibitors presenting products specially developed for the show.

In 2017, 64% of exhibitors and 48% of visitors were from outside Germany, coming from around 160 countries.

The EMO Hannover 2019 Early Bird offer to exhibitors is available until Oct. 15, 2018.