Providence Medical Technology is Issued New U.S. Patents

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued Providence Medical Technology Inc. (PMT) five patents in the past 12 months protecting the company’s DTRAX family of technologies, bringing the total number of U.S. patents issued to the company by the USPTO to seven.

The most recent patent to issue—U.S. Patent No. 8,623,054, “Vertebral Joint Implants and Delivery Tools,” issued on Jan. 7—describes, among other things, the company’s methods and instruments for minimally invasively routing an implant into the spinal facet joint via a posterior approach.

“We are proud of the level of innovation Providence has brought to the market for the treatment of cervical radiculopathy,” commented Jeff Smith, co-founder and CEO of San Francisco, Calif.-based Providence Medical Technology. “Indirect decompression and cervical fusion is an exciting new category in spine. We believe that our intellectual property portfolio gives the company a significant competitive advantage in this space.”

In addition to the “054” patent, the company’s intellectual property portfolio now also contains the following issued U.S. patents:

• 8,512,347, “Cervical Distraction/Implant Delivery Device”
• 8,425,558, “Vertebral Joint Implants and Delivery Tools”
• 8,361,152, “Facet Joint Implants and Delivery Tools”
• 8,348,979, “Cervical Distraction Method”
• 8,267,966, “Facet Joint Implants and Delivery Tools”
• 7,824,431, “Cervical Distraction Method “

Dozens of other U.S. and foreign patents are pending, the company reported.

The recent rapid growth in Providence’s patent portfolio complements the progress made in other aspects of its business, Smith noted.

“Our initial U.S. release of our DTRAX technologies is also tracking ahead of our expectations in terms of surgeon and distributor training, hospital approvals, and surgeries performed,” he said. “We believe that 2014 will be an exciting year for the company as we invest in clinical evidence generation, continued product development, key opinion leader engagement, and rapid revenue growth.”

Providence Medical Technology is a privately held medical device company developing minimally invasive solutions addressing the $1 billion worldwide cervical fusion market. The company’s DTRAX platform of cervical devices are used to provide indirect decompression and fusion in patients suffering from cervical radiculopathy secondary to degenerative disc disease.