09.16.14
Ortho Kinematics Inc. (OKI), a privately held healthcare diagnostic company focused on spine imaging informatics, entered an agreement with Medtronic Inc., giving Medtronic the ability to promote OKI’s Vertebral Motion Analysis (VMA) test to spine surgeons.
VMA is OKI’s flagship spine diagnostic test, which recently completed a successful 18-month limited scale initial launch, according to the company.
The VMA is a diagnostic test that can be prescribed as an alternative to the 6 million flexion/extension X-ray tests that are prescribed each year in the United States for the assessment of spinal motion and instability in the cervical and lumbar spine. The VMA has been shown in studies to produce more accurate and reproducible results than the traditional manual X-ray test, detecting spinal instability with greater sensitivity and with no decrease in specificity, Ortho Kinematics officials claim.
Spinal instability is a condition that may contribute to back and neck pain, and is an important consideration in evaluating candidates for potential spine surgery or spine pain management injections.
“The VMA’s initial launch was a success and with this partnership we expect to build on this by making the VMA the potential standard of care for assessing spinal motion and instability," said Paul Gunnoe, CEO of Ortho Kinematics. "Having a partner and investor with the reputation, scale, and reach of Medtronic will be helpful to these efforts.”
Unlike the market for spine surgical technology, which is characterized by hundreds of companies and thousands of products, the market for spine diagnostics comprises a small handful of on-market and development-stage products. Most market analysts agree that diagnostics represents an area of strong growth potential within the spine surgery category. The global revenue potential for the VMA is over $5 billion, company officials claim.
Other terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Ortho Kinematics is based in Austin, Texas. Medtronic Inc.'s spine business is bases in Memphis, Tenn.
VMA is OKI’s flagship spine diagnostic test, which recently completed a successful 18-month limited scale initial launch, according to the company.
The VMA is a diagnostic test that can be prescribed as an alternative to the 6 million flexion/extension X-ray tests that are prescribed each year in the United States for the assessment of spinal motion and instability in the cervical and lumbar spine. The VMA has been shown in studies to produce more accurate and reproducible results than the traditional manual X-ray test, detecting spinal instability with greater sensitivity and with no decrease in specificity, Ortho Kinematics officials claim.
Spinal instability is a condition that may contribute to back and neck pain, and is an important consideration in evaluating candidates for potential spine surgery or spine pain management injections.
“The VMA’s initial launch was a success and with this partnership we expect to build on this by making the VMA the potential standard of care for assessing spinal motion and instability," said Paul Gunnoe, CEO of Ortho Kinematics. "Having a partner and investor with the reputation, scale, and reach of Medtronic will be helpful to these efforts.”
Unlike the market for spine surgical technology, which is characterized by hundreds of companies and thousands of products, the market for spine diagnostics comprises a small handful of on-market and development-stage products. Most market analysts agree that diagnostics represents an area of strong growth potential within the spine surgery category. The global revenue potential for the VMA is over $5 billion, company officials claim.
Other terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Ortho Kinematics is based in Austin, Texas. Medtronic Inc.'s spine business is bases in Memphis, Tenn.