Safe Orthopaedics Expands Into Germany

Safe Orthopaedics is expanding into Germany and has appointed Jochen Esser as head of sales for the country.
 
Esser has more than 25 years of sales development and sales force leadership experience in the spinal surgery sector, both in Germany and in international markets. Before joining Safe Orthopaedics, he held various sales positions with Zimmer Holdings Inc., and DePuy Synthes, the Johnson & Johnson group subsidiary specialized in medical devices, where he was awarded for his sales performance on several occasions. In 2010, he joined K2M Inc., a developer of minimally invasive techniques for back surgery, as head of the Germany, Austria and Switzerland region; he built a team of seven sales representatives and more than tripled the sales base. Since 2015, Esser has been head of sales Germany at Joimax, a specialist in endoscopic solutions for minimally invasive back surgeries. In this role, he also built up the company’s sales in Austria and Switzerland.
 
“We are delighted to welcome Jochen to Safe Orthopaedics. His knowledge of the German market and many years of experience in the spinal surgery sector will be invaluable to our development in Germany, where we intend to replicate the success we have had in France with direct sales of our products”, said Pierre Dumouchel, CEO of Safe Orthopaedics. “2017 is shaping up to be a strategically important year for the Group, with the progressive strengthening of our sales force in regions experiencing the most rapid growth. Following on from the appointment of Dr. Franke, a highly renowned German surgeon, to our Scientific Advisory Board, the addition of Jochen as our head of sales represents another step forward establishing us in this market.”
 
The German market, Europe’s largest, is also growing most rapidly. Sales of spinal implants totaled 443 million euros in 2015, and a compound annual growth rate in sales of 4.7 percent has been forecast for the period to 2024. By comparison, sales in the French market totaled 64.7 million euros in the same year. Germany is also a very large market for traumatology, a segment estimated to be worth 50 million euros. It has around 600 centers specialized in trauma surgery, compared with approximately 100 in France.
 
“I’m very excited to be joining Safe Orthopaedics’ team and to be contributing to its development, following on from its solid performance in 2016,” Esser said. “With its growing international footprint and its commitment to innovation, Safe Orthopaedics is a breakthrough force in back surgery. Its single-use technology is particularly well-suited for minimally-invasive techniques and for trauma surgeries. With this in mind, I will initially focus on traumatology to establish our sales base in Germany in this key segment before building a larger sales team and catering to the degenerative condition segment.”
 
Founded in 2010, Safe Orthopaedics is a French medical technology company that aims to make spinal surgeries safer by using sterile implants and associated single-use instruments. Through this approach, these products eliminate all risk of contamination, reduce infection risks and facilitate a minimally‑invasive approach for trauma and degenerative pathologies—benefiting patients. Protected by 17 patent families, the SteriSpineTM kits are CE-marked and U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved. The company is based at Eragny-sur-Oise (Val d’Oise department), and has 30 employees.