Is There a Method to Stryker’s Mako Madness? (OrthoFeed)
Stryker certainly can’t be accused of rushing its rollout of the robotic-arm assisted total knee arthroplasty application for use with its Mako system. FDA approved the company’s Triathlon Total Knee System for the use with the Mako robot in August 2015, but the company made the market wait more than a year for the full commercial launch, which finally happened this past March. Stryker wanted to release the product at a measured pace in an effort to maximize its chance of success.
Now, the company is working through a backlog of new Mako orders and upgrade requests from current Mako customers wanting the total knee application.
Katherine Owen, vice president of strategy and investor relations at Stryker, provided an update on the latest Mako product during the company’s recent second-quarter earnings call. She said Stryker installed 26 new Mako robots globally during the quarter, and continued to see “solid uptake” for upgrades. She said she expects all of the U.S. Mako upgrades will be completed by the end of 2018.
“I think the biggest gating item right now is our ability to identify, hire, and train the Mako specialists, wh...
