Stryker Corporation kept busy last week making several acquisitions.

The Kalamazoo, Mich.-based medical giant announced it was picking up OtisMed, a company that makes software to help surgeons determine how best to fit total knee replacements.

Stryker also purchased global rights to build and sell Sonopet's Ultrasonic Aspirators, tools used to pulverize and suck up tumorous tissue. Stryker hopes its agreement with Mutoh Co., Ltd., a Japanese business that manufactures the device, and Synergetics USA, Inc., the U.S. sellers, will go into effect before the end of the year.

"Stryker is acquiring OtisMed because it has been a leading innovator in developing customized cutting guides for total knee replacements," a source at Stryker tells DOTmed News. "This acquisition has the potential to combine the best-in-class Triathlon Knee System with instrumentation that will present surgeons with an additional offering for their approach to total knee replacement."

Stryker says it will pay $67 million upfront for the two combined transactions, but will top it off with royalty and milestone payments of around $36 million.

While the Sonopet device will be housed within Stryker's instrument division at its Michigan headquarters, OtisMed will remain in Alameda, Calif.

More Voices