Biomet, Inc., was a
medical device
A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. Significant potential for hazards are inherent when using a device for medical purposes and thus medical devices must be proved safe and effective with reasonable assura ...
manufacturer located in the
Warsaw, Indiana
Warsaw is a city in and the county seat of Kosciusko County, Indiana, United States. Warsaw has a population of 13,559 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. Warsaw also borders a smaller town, Winona Lake.
Etymology
Warsaw, named after the capital of ...
,
business cluster
A business cluster is a geographic concentration of interconnected businesses, suppliers, and associated institutions in a particular field. Clusters are considered to increase the productivity with which companies can compete, nationally and gl ...
. The company specialized in reconstructive products for orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery,
craniomaxillofacial surgery and operating room supplies. In 2015, Biomet became part of the new company
Zimmer Biomet.
History
Biomet was established in 1977 and delivered its first hip replacement in 1978. The four founders of Biomet were:
Dane A. Miller, Ray Harroff, Niles Noblitt, and Jerry Ferguson. In a September 2007
club deal, the company was acquired by a consortium of
private equity
In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a t ...
firms consisting of
The Blackstone Group
Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate b ...
,
Goldman Sachs,
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strate ...
L.P. and
TPG Capital
TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American investment company based in Fort Worth, Texas. The private equity firm is focused on leveraged buyouts and growth capital. TPG manages investment funds in growth c ...
, after which Biomet ceased trading on
NASDAQ.
In April 2014, it was announced that
Zimmer Holdings had succeeded in a bid to acquire Biomet for a fee of $13.4 billion. However, in October 2014, EU antitrust regulators opened an investigation into Zimmer's bid on the grounds that the deal may lead to substantial decreases in competition in certain markets. The verdict of the investigation into the deal that would make Zimmer the world's second-largest seller of orthopaedic products behind
Johnson & Johnson allowed the merger to take place in June 2015.
Products
Biomet manufactured reconstructive products for orthopedic surgery, such as hips, knees and shoulders, fixation devices, orthopedic support devices. It also made spinal implants, dental implants, and general operating instruments.
Its subsidiary, Biomet Microfixation, manufactured mainly
craniomaxillofacial and neurosurgical products. These included LactoSorb, a fixation system made of completely
resorbable material for guided bone regeneration, titanium plates and screws for craniomaxillofacial fixation, instruments for craniomaxillofacial and orthopedic procedures and hard tissue replacements made out of biocompatible polymers, as used in cranial defects. Biomet began using
polymethylmethacrylate
Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite ...
(PMMA) beads, which are fused together with
polyhydroxyethylmethacrylate (PHEMA) for cranial plates, in 1993. The other material is
polyetherketoneketone
Polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) is a semi-crystalline thermoplastic in the polyaryletherketone (PAEK) family of polymers. It possesses high heat, chemical, and mechanical load resistance. PEKK has a glass transition temperature (Tg) of 162 °C. ...
(PEKK), formed either by laser sintering or by
3D printing
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...
.
Misconduct
In 2012, Biomet paid more than $22 million to settle
SEC and
Department of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
violations of the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). From 2000 to August 2008 Biomet bribed publicly employed doctors in Argentina, Brazil, and China with up to 15-20% of the sale. The four subsidiaries involved were Biomet Argentina SA, U.S. subsidiary Biomet International, Biomet China and Scandimed AB.
Incomplete section. In 2017 Biomet was again convicted. This second conviction was backed by another violation of the FCPA that was discovered in 2013.
These violations are also correlated with the first time a whistleblower received monetary compensation for reporting an entity to the SEC that led to a successful conviction.
References
External links
Biomet official websiteBiomet Spine WebsiteBiomet Directory of orthopedic surgeons who use Biomet products* Simon, Hermann: Hidden Champions of the 21st Century : Success Strategies of unknown World Market Leaders. London: Springer, 2009. . (mentions company as an example of a "
Hidden Champion")
{{Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Kosciusko County, Indiana
Privately held companies based in Indiana
Private equity portfolio companies
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts companies