A Medical Device Daily

Tutogen Medical (Alachua, Florida), a maker of sterile biological implant products made from human (allograft) and animal (xenograft) tissue, and orthopedics company Zimmer Holdings (Warsaw, Indiana), reported the expansion of Tutogen’s partnership with Zimmer Dental into Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

Zimmer Dental, a subsidiary of Zimmer Holdings, currently distributes Tutogen grafts in the U.S., Canada and Latin America, under the name Puros. This enhanced distribution agreement includes both human and bovine tissues — bone and soft tissue grafts — and provides the dentist with a complete product package for the regenerative procedure, the companies said.

“Our dental products have demonstrated superior clinical results in the U.S. market. We look forward to extending our relationship with Zimmer Dental in globalizing this fast growing product portfolio. Working together we have a demonstrated track record of success in developing the North American market. We believe that joint experience provides a strong foundation to build a significant international business,” said Guy Mayer, president/CEO of Tutogen Medical.

The addressable market for Tutogen’s dental products is about $300 million annually, the company noted, with the U.S. representing roughly one-half of the total.

“We look forward to leveraging the success and experience that we have achieved in the U.S. market with Puros dental products from Tutogen. This is an outstanding international market opportunity for Zimmer Dental as it enables us to continue to define ourselves as an innovator in advanced materials and in state-of-the-art oral rehabilitation technologies,” said David Dvorak, president/CEO of Zimmer Holdings.

Tutogen uses its Tutoplast Process of tissue preservation and viral inactivation to make sterile bio-implants used in spinal/trauma, urology, dental, ophthalmology, and general surgery procedures.

Zimmer Dental offers one of the most comprehensive dental implant product lines available, the company said, including the Tapered Screw-Vent Implant System and Puros Allograft family, and provides professionals access to premier education and training resources such as The Zimmer Institute.

In other agreement news:

• Lionbridge (Waltham, Massachusetts) reported that Hill-Rom, the healthcare unit of Hillenbrand Industries (Batesville, Indiana), has selected it as a primary preferred translation services partner.

With this three-year agreement, Lionbridge is providing a complete outsourcing solution for the localization of Hill-Rom’s technical documentation, software, and marketing materials. This agreement formalizes the five-year relationship between Lionbridge and Hill-Rom, and expands the use of Lionbridge services across the organization, the companies said.

To facilitate Hill-Rom’s program Lionbridge said it is using Logoport, its web-architected translation memory technology. Hill-Rom will also use Freeway, Lionbridge’s translation portal to streamline and automate tasks within the localization process.

• Premier Purchasing Partners (Charlotte, North Carolina) reported new agreements for orthopedic power tools have been awarded to Brasseler USA (Savannah, Georgia), Conmed Linvatec (Utica, New York), MicroAire Surgical Instruments (Charlottesville, Virginia), and Stryker Instruments (Kalamazoo, Michigan).

The agreements with Brasseler, ConMed and MicroAire were effective May 1. The agreement with Stryker was effective August 1. These agreements offer discounted pricing for orthopedic power tools to acute and continuum of care members of the Premier alliance.

Serving 1,700 hospitals and more than 47,000 other healthcare sites, Premier is one of the largest healthcare alliances in the U.S.

• Syndicom (Durango, Colorado) reported that it has finalized a one-year agreement with DePuy Spine (Raynham, Massachusetts), a Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, New Jersey) company.

Syndicom has agreed to provide software and consulting services to develop and host SpineShare — an online community for about 1,000 DePuy Spine sales representatives and medical device experts. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

• Milestone Scientific (Livingston, New Jersey) said it has concluded its collaboration agreement with Carticept Medical (Alpharetta, Georgia) for the treatment of arthritic joints.

The companies, however, have been unable to reach agreement on required minimum purchases by Carticept, the territories to be covered by the distribution agreement, development time tables for foreign territories and other matters and have, therefore, terminated negotiations.

• Tenet Healthcare (Dallas) reported that its 25-year operating lease agreement with the MetroCrest Hospital Authority (MHA; Carrolton, Texas) to operate the 155-bed RHD Memorial Medical Center and the 207-bed Trinity Medical Center, both located in the Dallas area, expired Aug. 31.

The company had previously disclosed the MHA had announced in August of 2006 that another company was selected to manage these two hospitals following the expiration of Tenet’s lease. Both hospitals were open and accredited with The Joint Commission upon their return to the MHA.

Tenet, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates acute care hospitals and related healthcare services.