Hope Slips for Disc Implants

High Stakes

To be fair, UBS analyst Wales did portray the prospects for artificial "lumbar" discs -- particularly Synthes' ProDisc, the next one set for FDA approval -- as less than encouraging after attending that same conference. He noted that one study recommended against using the ProDisc for patients over 60 and that another showed no advantages over fusion surgery, "even in range of motion," for back patients in general. Moreover, he added, at least one surgeon stressed that artificial discs should not be considered substitutes for the fusion treatments that so many had expected the devices to replace.

By now, however, several companies have already placed their bets.

"Realizing this as a lucrative market opportunity, a burgeoning number of companies continue to invest heavily in research and development of artificial disc implants as well as other motion preservation technologies," the health care experts at Millennium Research Group wrote in Medical Industry Intelligence just ahead of this year's big convention. "Motion preservation technologies thus represent the most significant advancement in spinal implant technology to emerge in recent years and are regarded by many as the next evolutionary phase in the treatment of degenerative disc disease."

Disc developers certainly hope so. However, Bagolie believes they could pay a steep price in the end.

"Back surgery is a multibillion-dollar market, so all of these companies are throwing their hats in the ring," he says. "We're already getting calls about the Charite from all over the country; it got approved first. But there are problems with the other discs as well."

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