DJO Changes its Name, Expands Alliance with European Implants Firm

DJO Incorporated is making a fresh start this year. The Vista, Calif., provider of orthopedic implants not only has changed its name, it also has strengthened its relationship with an Italian orthopedic company.

DJO executives claim the new name—DJO Global Inc.—reflects the integrated worldwide presence of the company. “The integration efforts we have made in recent years have transformed DJO Global into a diversified medical device provider,” President and CEO Les Cross said in a news release announcing the new moniker. “We are well positioned to take advantage of important trends developing in global healthcare markets. As pressure mounts to contain healthcare costs, effective treatment modalities that are more conservative and cost effective than traditional treatments will likely become more important. DJO Global’s medical devices are well positioned for such treatment protocols across the continuum of patient care from prevention to recovery.”

The name change is the first since the company was acquired by ReAble Therapeutics Inc. in 2007. In the last four years, the firm has overhauled its infrastructure, consolidating departments and services to create a more efficient system of providing products and services to global customers, DJO bigwigs said. The company’s product portfolio consists of eight brands that fall into four reporting segments: Recovery Sciences, Bracing and Supports, Surgical Implant, and International (the unit responsible for selling all global brands outside the United States).

Besides reflecting the worldwide reach of its product distribution channels, DJO executives said the new name caps efforts to unify the company’s culture, vision and mission. “In the last few years, we’ve focused on joining together a large group of essentially independent businesses into a single company,” Cross said. “Our last integration step focused on horizontally integrating our marketing and commercial shared services while maintaining our vertically aligned brand-focused sellers. With this integration now complete, DJO Global stakes its claim as a worldwide leader in orthopedic rehabilitation.”

To help cement that leadership claim, DJO is expanding its partnership with Lima Corporate, an implant company based in San Daniele del Friuli (Udine), Italy. DJO announced the expanded alliance with Lima during the first day of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif.

The new agreement between DJO and Lima enables the firms to expand the range of jointly marketed products in the United States. DJO is creating a new division to support the new distribution deal (expected to take effect by April)—DJO Lima Orthopedics LLC.

“We are pleased to expand our relationship with Lima Corporate,” Cross said. “The combination of our product portfolios will provide a state-of-the-art and comprehensive offering to better serve our customers and meet the needs of today’s complex procedures.”

Executives with both DJO and Lima said the expanded partnership solidifies the firms’ 2-year-old relationship and will help the companies better serve customers. DJO Surgical launched the first of Lima’s products—a revision hip system—in the United States late in the third quarter of 2010. Lima, in return, is distributing DJO Surgical’s 3D Knee and Foundation Total Knee system in certain European markets. Lima officials said the new agreement would enable their firm to leverage new product ideas from American surgeons.

“We are committed to continue our growth by offering Lima’s solutions to U.S. surgeons and we are eager to embrace U.S. surgeons’ ideas and convert those ideas into products,” noted Stefano Alfonsi, Lima’s CEO. “The partnership with DJO will enable us to efficiently access this market and together, provide a high level of service to customers.”