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Can MicroPort Master Orthopedics?

China’s MicroPort Scientific paid $290 million in cash for Wright Medical’s hip and knee business, which has a pipeline of products – including FDA approved implants – ready for sale in China’s growing orthopedics market. The acquisition pits MicroPort against multinationals that previously held an edge selling implants to Chinese patients and doctors who seem to favor devices that carry approval from the US FDA.

Three years ago, Ted Davis was doing what any good business development officer at a US-based ortho company should do. His employer, Wright Medical Group NV, was trying to sell hip and knee implants in China. “We were growing at a pretty decent rate,” Davis recalls, but the company wanted to amp things up. So he was taking meetings, not really looking for partners but just trying better to understand the lay of the land. In his search, several signs kept pointing to MicroPort Scientific Corp., which had no real experience in orthopedics sales. “Several bankers told me, ‘Look, you need to meet with these guys,’” he recalls. “‘They are very dedicated to trying to develop a hip and knee strategy within China.’”

Boy, were they right. Three years after Davis had the meeting, he’s the CEO of MicroPort Orthopedics Inc., a new...

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