Spinal hardware and biologics company Zavation Medical Products (Jackson, Miss.) said today that it has partnered with the management team of Pan Medical U.S. Corp. to buy that company.
PanMed (Tampa, Fla.) designs, develops and manufactures highly complex medical products including balloons, catheters, needles, and instrument kits used in minimally invasive procedures, primarily in kyphoplasty and interventional radiology. The company was founded in the U.K. 30 years ago and relocated to the U.S. in 2016.
The company sells branded products through a network of independent distributors, agents, and OEMs, while also maintaining a private label program for spinal hardware companies throughout the world. Its FDA-approved CurvePlus kyphoplasty system is the only one that allows for both the balloon and cement to be passed through a curved needle to surgically fill an injured or collapsed vertebra. This not only facilitates precise balloon placement but limits the number of steps in the procedure and decreases overall procedure time.
Zavation designs, engineers, and manufactures a portfolio of spinal hardware and biologics for cervical, thoracolumbar, interbody fusion, and minimally invasive surgery. Founded in 2012, fast-growing Zavation has commercialized 12 product families, with approximately 10 more novel products expected to launch over the next year, according to a company statement. The company employs 60 and has more than 150 distributors across approximately 40 states.
“We are delighted to partner with Zavation, a high-growth complementary hardware business with incredible customer service and a deep knowledge of the U.S. market,” said PanMed president & CEO Max Nasralla in the statement. “We have a strong relationship with the Zavation team, as PanMed has been a supplier to Zavation for over three years. We see significant value in the transaction, and, as such, have invested in the combined business. With our growth trajectory, we need to ensure the ability to continue to provide exceptional customer service, which the Zavation partnership will enable us to do.”
Nasralla will continue in his current role throughout the integration process and remain as a shareholder and strategic advisor to the combined entity thereafter.
“An important component of choosing a partner for PanMed was a cultural fit that will provide continuity to our customers, who are critical to our ongoing success,” said Jennie Budding, COO of PanMed and incoming vice president at Zavation. “I have watched this business grow over the past 15 years, and I am delighted that our new partners will provide our team with the resources needed to successfully scale the business while never compromising our commitment to quality and to our customers, both domestically and abroad.”
Zavation CEO Jeffrey Johnson added, “After years of testing a variety of different kyphoplasty balloons for our ZVPlasty system, we realized that many competitive products on the market are substantially inferior to those of PanMed. We saw an opportunity to partner with PanMed to provide a unique and proprietary curved kyphoplasty solution, and we could not be more excited about the future of our partnership. The combined business will have an industry-leading product portfolio, and we are thrilled to offer PanMed’s products to our network of distributors and surgeons.”
Zavation announced in a July 17 press release that it has received FDA 510(k) clearance for its Normandy VBR System. The system is a cervical and thoracolumbar expandable corpectomy cage with an adjustable height to provide structural stability in skeletally mature patients following a corpectomy or vertebrectomy.
