SMALL BONE INNOVATIONS, INC. EXPANDS ARTELON® BASAL THUMB ARTHRITIS IMPLANT LINE WITH ARTELON® CMC SPACER LG

NEW YORK – July XX, 2006 – Small Bone Innovations, a single-source provider of products, technology and education for the small bone and joint orthopedic sector, has added the Artelon® CMC Spacer LG to its line of thumb-base osteoarthritis (OA) treatments.   The Artelon CMC Spacer LG is of similar design to the Artelon® Spacer CMC-I used primarily to treat basal thumb OA in women, who make up about 75% of patients for this implant. The new spacer is essentially an implant for bigger hands. It is a T-shaped woven construction of biodegradable Artelon® fibers that act as a scaffold to preserve the joint and promote bony ingrowth to support restoration of joint function without harvesting tissue.   The vertical portion of the Artelon CMC Spacer LG interposes the arthritic joint between the trapezium and the first metacarpal. At 2.0-cm, it is twice the length of the CMC-I. The horizontal ‘wings’ of the Spacer, fixed to the trapezium and metacarpal, stabilize the joint and prevent subluxation. The wings are 1.5 cm in length compared to 1.0 cm of CMC-I.   Cleared by the FDA in September 2004, the Artelon Spacer CMC-I has so far been adopted by more than 200 surgeons to treat early-stage basal thumb OA. The CMC-I design was originally targeted at female patients in Scandinavia but, according to SBI, the experience in the US during the past 12 months revealed a significant need for the larger implant to treat male patients.   The Artelon CMC Spacer LG is the first new product launched under SBI’s November, 2005 global licensing agreement with Artimplant AB (STO: ARTI-B), the Swedish developer of the Artelon® platform. The agreement is focused on a variety of small joint applications such as arthroscopic implants in the extremities.   Anthony G. Viscogliosi, CEO & Chairman of SBI, said: “The success that this type of tissue sparing and motion restoring implant is having is beginning to focus surgeon attention on the small bone and joint sector of the orthopedic market. The technology offers an appealing, intermediate choice between drug therapy and joint fusion surgery when the efficacy of long term pain medication regimes is under challenge.”   Alejandro Badia, MD, at the Miami Center for Joint Reconstruction, said: “The use of tissue-sparing technology holds immense promise in treating basal thumb osteoarthritis that increasingly seems to afflict active women as well as men with symptoms of osteoarthritis.”