Kinetic Concepts Inc. created a wound healing market potentially worth $6 billion, as the first company to offer a modality known as negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT). Its VAC (for vacuum-assisted closure) therapy, a device that applies sub-atmospheric pressure to a wound through a specialized dressing, is effective at healing complex and chronic wounds. Having uncovered such a large potential market, it’s only natural that KCI would attract competition, and it has. In March 2009 Smith & Nephew PLC launched its own NPWT product line, unveiling two models; the Renasys EZ and the RenasysGO portable unit as it made the rounds of clinical meetings. To gain entry into the market, Smith & Nephew had acquired BlueSky Medical Group Inc. in May 2007 in a deal that could amount to $110 million if all the milestones and back-end payments are achieved [See Deal] and it has been marketing the BlueSky systems for a year now. That experience helped Smith & Nephew gain a sense of the market and some revenues at an annual run rate of approximately $15 million, according to analysts. Now, the recently launched Renasys product line incorporates enhancements based upon that learning.
KCI began back in 1976, with a focus on the distribution of "therapeutic surfaces"—specially designed beds that help relieve the...