Wright Medical Group, Inc. Announces the Commercial Launch of the PRO-TOE™ VO Hammertoe Fixation System
ARLINGTON, Tenn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Wright Medical Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: WMGI), a global orthopaedic medical device company, announced the full commercial release of the PRO-TOE™ VO Hammertoe Fixation System. This system was designed in cooperation with world-renowned foot and ankle surgeons to offer a simple and efficient means to surgically repair the lesser toes following correction of a hammertoe deformity. The PRO-TOE™ VO Hammertoe System will be featured by Wright at the annual meeting of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons March 9-12, 2011 in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
A hammertoe is a contracture of the tissues surrounding the joints of the lesser toes, causing significant pain and discomfort in addition to an altered physical appearance. It is estimated that 10-20% of the U.S. population will suffer from hammertoes at some point in their life. As a result, over 500,000 patients seek surgical treatment each year. While a sizeable proportion of these surgeries are treated conventionally with pins, the PRO-TOE™ VO Hammertoe implant provides a stable and efficient alternative surgical solution for the deformity.
“We believe the PRO-TOE™ VO Hammertoe system will improve patient satisfaction over pin fixation, which has been the standard of care for many years. The PRO-TOE™ system’s sizing scheme covers the full array of anatomic variations that are seen from patient to patient. Additionally, the system arrives in the operating room as a single, sterile-packed unit which has increased the efficiency of the procedure while removing costly cleaning and processing of a standard reusable instrument set,” noted Aaron C. Smith, Senior Director of Foot and Ankle Marketing at Wright.
Jason Edie, Director of Research and Development, commented, “The PRO-TOE™ VO Hammertoe system offers a number of advantages over the present implant options. The implant’s construction provides a solid and secure fixation that prevents shortening of the toe. The implant is also fabricated from stainless steel which simplifies the procedure by eliminating the freezer storage and special instruments required for other implant alternatives. The PRO-TOE™ VO system very clearly represents an evolution in the treatment of this complex problem.”
The new PRO-TOE™ VO Hammertoe System will be made available immediately in the U.S. through Wright’s specialized foot and ankle sales force. Additionally, the system will be marketed in select countries outside the U.S. through Wright’s direct and distributor-based sales representatives.
The PRO-TOE™ VO Hammertoe System is the latest addition to Wright’s market-leading suite of products for foot and ankle surgeons. These include the CHARLOTTE® family of reconstructive implants, DARCO® locked plating systems, ORTHOLOC™ polyaxial locking plating systems, the BIOARCH® subtalar implant, SIDE-KICK® External Fixators, ALLOPURE® and BIOFOAM® osteotomy wedge systems, DART-FIRE® small screw systems, GRAFTJACKET® regenerative tissue matrix, VALOR® Hindfoot Fusion Nail, and the INBONE® total ankle replacement.
Wright Medical Group, Inc. is a global orthopaedic medical device company and a leading provider of surgical solutions for the foot and ankle market. The Company specializes in the design, manufacture and marketing of devices and biologic products for extremity, hip and knee repair and reconstruction. The Company has been in business for 60 years and markets its products in over 60 countries worldwide. For more information about Wright Medical, visit the Company’s website at www.wmt.com.
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” as defined under U.S. federal securities laws. These statements reflect management’s current knowledge, assumptions, beliefs, estimates, and expectations and express management’s current views of future performance, results, and trends and may be identified by their use of terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “predict,” “project,” “will,” and other similar terms. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to materially differ from those described in the forward-looking statements.Such risks and uncertainties include the impact of Wright’s settlement of the federal investigation into Wright’s consulting arrangements with orthopaedic surgeons relating to its hip and knee products in the United States, including Wright’s compliance with a Deferred Prosecution Agreement through September 2011 and a Corporate Integrity Agreement through September 2015, and those risks and uncertainties discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (including those described in Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009, under the heading, “Risk Factors” and in Item 1A of Part II of our 10-Qs filed during 2010). Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Such statements are made as of the date of this press release, and we undertake no obligation to update such statements after this date.
