The Regenerative Medicine market for orthopedic and sports medicine applications is rapidly advancing as clinicians increasingly look to novel injectable options to accelerate the healing of injured joints, tendons and/or other soft tissues. Several companies are conducting research into the use of PRP, BMA/BMC, amniotic tissue products, exosomes and other regenerative medicine therapies to treat degenerative and/or chronic conditions such as osteoarthritis (OA), degenerative disc/spine disease, chronic low back pain, tendinopathy and rotator cuff tears. This includes Arthrex, Emcyte, ISTO Biologics, MiMedx and Harvest/Terumo among others.

The following is a sampling of SmartTRAK market updates covering recently published studies, articles and clinical trials in orthopedic regenerative medicine that were compiled, reviewed and posted in real time by Freddy Buntoum, SmartTRAK’s Sr. Analyst, Regenerative Medicine and Sports Medicine.

In the Sports Medicine market, companies with soft tissue fixation products continue to innovate and pursue patents that provide a window into company ideas, concepts and future technologies. SmartTRAK takes a look at the top competitors in this space, including Arthrex, Smith & Nephew, DePuy Synthes, Zimmer Biomet, Stryker and CONMED Linvatec.

Freddy Buntoum, SmartTRAK’s Sr. Analyst, Regenerative Medicine and Sports Medicine, highlights recently granted patents and published patent applications in soft tissue fixation that describe novel methods, techniques, materials and devices for the repair and reconstruction of soft tissue injuries in the shoulder, extremities, hip and knee.

Heavy-weight contender ​COVID-19 landed some brutal blows to revenue in Q220, but companies look for better days in the second half of 2020. 

The impact of the COVID-19 crisis started to hit the US Joint Fluid Replacement market late in Q120, and, to some degree, this helped to shield HA companies from heavy punches to revenue. Although none were left KO’d in round one, they still came through bruised up. Going into Q220 for round two, HA companies prepared as best as they could and braced for impact. Unfortunately, COVID-19 is a formidable opponent and even with strong cost-control measures in place, companies were hit hard with huge revenue losses for products in the three largest segments of the US Joint Fluid Replacement market.

Among the many topics covered in the comprehensive Q220 US Joint Fluid Replacement Market Recap* are:

A well-oiled engine, the Soft Tissue Fixation train was prepped for a good start to 2020, then COVID-19 sent it in reverse back down the revenue tracks.

Looking back at how 2019 finished, market sentiment was quite optimistic that 2020 could be another positive year for the WW Soft Tissue Fixation Market. With +3.7% YoY growth in Q419, the first quarter of 2020 seemed set for a good start, with companies chugging along nicely, actively pushing products, planning or recruiting for clinical trials, and some of them also receiving FDA 510(k) clearance for new products or for line extensions. All appeared to be business as usual, that is, until COVID-19 reared its ugly head, picking China as its first target. Alas, the rapid worldwide spread of this devastating virus forced a major halt in elective procedures to enable healthcare systems to focus on the rising number of COVID-19 cases. 

Among the many topics covered in the comprehensive Q120 Soft Tissue Fixation Market Recap* are:

Coming through Q120 bruised and expecting much harder punches before the calm, companies ride the COVID-19 storm

According to SmartTRAK Financial Dashboard, Q120 revenue for the US Joint Fluid Replacement market was down -2.8%, which is within the range predicted by market leaders and physicians in SmartTRAK’s Impact of COVID-19 on the US Joint Fluid Replacement and Regenerative Medicine Injectable Markets for Knee OA*. Albeit revenue is down for Q120, the stay-at-home orders across US states triggered by the rapid spread of COVID-19 were not implemented until mid-March, which helped to mitigate what could have been much bigger losses. 

Among the many topics covered in the comprehensive Q120 US Joint Fluid Replacement Market Recap* are:

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant effect on physician practices in Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, including the number of elective procedures being postponed, when normal operations might resume, the adoption of telemedicine, delivery of physician education and interactions with industry. To find out more, SmartTRAK Analyst Freddy Buntoum interviewed Steven Sampson, DO, founder of The Orthobiologic Institute (TOBI) and an internationally-recognized expert in the field of non-surgical orthopedics and the science of sports medicine. To hear Dr. Sampson’s take on how things might evolve throughout the rest of 2020, and how his practice and organization are supporting patients and other stakeholders, click on the following video to listen to the interview recorded via Uberconference (25:20 minutes). A transcript of the interview can be downloaded below.

For the fourth quarter of 2019, WW Soft Tissue Fixation Market revenue was up +3.7% YoY. Aggregate growth for the quarter especially benefited from healthy and continued revenue gains in the Hip Labral repair segment, which was up +8.9% YoY. And, to a smaller extent, the Meniscal repair and the Shoulder repair segments also contributing to the overall WW market growth in Q419 with YoY increases of 4.4% and 4.1%, respectively, based on SmartTRAK Financial Dashboard. Similar to other orthopedic markets, such as the Joint replacement market, Soft Tissue Fixation is typically seasonal with lower sales during Q3 and recovery in Q4 driven by a year-end increase in the number of elective procedures and stronger product push as competitors race to finish the year at or above their respective budget projections.

The Biologic Association kicked off its very 1st Summit (Feb 5-7, 2020 in Carlsbad, CA) with what turned out to be a big crowd-pleaser. Initially set up as a “by invitation only” attendance, the Summit’s opening program, “Biologic Association Think Tank” raised such a high level of interest that everyone in attendance was ultimately let into the session.

The format for the Think Tank was quite similar to the hugely popular television show “Shark Tank.” Only in this session, the “school of fish” (contestants/presenters) included a lineup of industry and/or academic researchers in the field of Orthobiologics who gave presentations on their respective lead product candidates.

Overall, 2019 was a good recovery year for the US Joint Fluid market with Single-injection treatment options at the helm

For Q419, revenue in the US Joint Fluid market was up, recovering fairly well from a year ago according to SmartTRAK Financial Dashboard. Aggregate growth for the quarter was attributable to a double-digit revenue growth in single injection. Stronger demand and heavy product push in that segment, especially at year-end, was offset to a certain extent by revenue declines in 3- and 5-injections. 

Among the many topics covered in the comprehensive Q419 US Joint Fluid Market Recap* are:

The GID Group – Prepping to revolutionize Regenerative Medicine with an innovative modular tissue processing platform

In December, at IFATS 2019, William “Bill” Cimino, PhD, CEO of The GID Group (GID) sat down with SmartTRAK to discuss the Company’s novel modular tissue processing platform, which reduces an entire GMP cell-processing facility to a single disposable device, enabling physicians to extract and process adipose tissue in real time for use in a wide range of applications.

GID is a privately held, clinical stage cellular medicine company currently working on developing a tissue processing platform, the GID SVF-2 device, that enables cell-based treatments.

To find out more about the GID Group, its revolutionary technology and product candidate, click on the following video to listen to SmarTRAK’s interview with Bill Cimino, recorded live at the IFATS Annual Meeting held in Marseille, France December 3-7, 2019. A transcript of the interview is also provided below.