Dive Brief:
- Medtronic has inked a five-year deal to sell Kuros Biosciences’ MagnetOs bone graft technology for use in spine procedures in the U.S.
- Kuros, which disclosed the agreement Tuesday, developed MagnetOs to provide an alternative to transplanting a patient’s own bone to support spine fusion.
- Medtronic also makes the Infuse bone graft product used in spinal fusion procedures. Medtronic settled liability cases from patients in 2014, as well as lawsuits from five states in 2017 accusing the company of misleading physicians about the device’s safety.
Dive Insight:
Medtronic has formed an exclusive five-year MagnetOs sales agency agreement with Kuros. The deal makes Medtronic the exclusive sales agent for the bone graft in certain spine geographies within the U.S. market. Kuros will work with Medtronic’s sales force and continue to handle sales in other regions and in indications other than the spine.
The five-year deal follows an initial trial agreement. Kuros CEO Chris Fair said in a statement that the new alliance will “help us drive the scaling up process, further optimize our operating leverage and continue our rapid revenue growth both with Medtronic and in our own direct channels.”
MagnetOs is a ceramic bone graft substitute. In a 100-person clinical trial, the fusion rate using MagnetOs was 79%, compared to 47% autograft procedures using the patient’s own bone. The authors of the paper said ceramic bone grafts benefit from “minimal disease transmission risk, excellent biocompatibility, long shelf-life and cost-effective manufacturing.”
Other companies have developed ceramic devices. Switzerland’s Kuros cited Nuvasive’s ceramic bone graft substitute Attrax as the predicate device when it filed for 510(k) clearance from the FDA. Attrax achieved a fusion rate of 55%, compared to 52% for autograft in a clinical trial. Nuvasive was acquired by Globus Medical in 2023.
MagnetOs sales increased 149% over the first nine months of 2024, rising to over 50 million Swiss francs ($55 million) compared to the year-ago period. Kuros is now expanding into the extremities markets to open up an opportunity it values at $1 billion.