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BioHorizons Files $100 Million IPO: Is Laser-Lok a Competitive Advantage?

Last Updated: Jun 27, 2010

The big news this week in the world of implant dentistry was that BioHorizons filed for a $100 million public offering with the SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission).

Biohorizon’s filing will surely prompt additional financial maneuvers in the implant industry, considering the plethora of fast-growing implant manufacturers worldwide, who are taking on the largest companies, like Nobel, Straumann, and Zimmer. Interestingly, according to company’s SEC filing, Biohorizons had $69 million in net sales in fiscal 2009. Since, most of Biohorizon’s smaller competitors, like Implant Direct, are private companies, we wonder how many other of the “upstart” implant companies are closing in on that sales level?

There were a host of other interesting tidbits in Biohorizons S-1 filing, including overall implant industry data, that we’ll reference in a future post. However, for now we’d like to get reader feedback on BioHorizon’s description of their “proprietary Laser-Lok platform technology”, which the company highlights in the Solution section of the S-1.

BioHorizon’s explains:

“Laser-Lok microchannels are a series of precision-engineered, laser-machined grooves on the top portion, or collar, of the implant body and the bottom portion of the abutment. We believe that our proprietary Laser-Lok platform technology is the only technology on the market today for which there is clinical data that supports reduced bone and soft tissue loss, which are frequent complications associated with conventional dental implant procedures. The technological characteristics of our Laser-Lok platform technology cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, were described as having a tissue connection that: (1) is functionally oriented, (2) inhibits epithelial cell downgrowth and (3) enables crestal bone adjacent to the implant to attach and be retained. Consequently, we believe that our proprietary Laser-Lok platform technology is unique in the dental implant industry, addresses the complications associated with conventional implants and makes our implant and abutment offerings more attractive to dental professionals and their patients as they become increasingly concerned with the aesthetic outcomes of implant dentistry.”

What are your thoughts on the Laser-Lok platform technology? Will it make BioHorizon’s offerings more attractive to clinicians and help BioHorizons gain more market share?

2 Comments on BioHorizons Files $100 Million IPO: Is Laser-Lok a Competitive Advantage?

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erich

6/29/2010

much ado about nothing

Robert J. Miller

7/1/2010

Before Biohorizons marketed their Laser-Lok implant, it was actually developed and sold by another implant company, Bio-Lok International. As one of the clinicians involved in the Laser-Lok trials, I will share some of my observations. First, Laser-Lok does work as advertised. It provides points of attachment for soft and hard tissue that helps to prevent crestal bone remodeling and apical migration of the dento-gingival complex. But here is the catch: any implant that has a parallel walled or flared emergence profile REQUIRES a mechanism for for insertion of transverse fibers. Without this, you will certainly experience crestal bone remodeling, especially on polished or machined collar implants. If you compare a platform shifted (medialized) prosthetic platform, without eximer laser etching, you will see the same functional result (lack of crestal bone remodeling). Our conclusion: the limits of implant macroarchitecture may require auxillary surface enhancements to make them behave appropriately. Laser-Lok is an advantage only for this type of implant design. You can achieve outstanding results with other implants that respect the biology of tissue - or, as the previous poster commented, this is "much ado about nothing".

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