Cerapedics, a privately-held orthobiologics company, today announced the appointment of Doug Kohrs to the company’s board of directors and the appointment of Antony Koblish as board chair. Cerapedics made the announcement during the North American Spine Society (NASS) 2017 annual meeting being held October 25-28th in Orlando, Florida.
“We are focused on developing disruptive technologies that can lead orthopedic surgery into the next generation of advanced biologics that can improve patient care and help hospital systems become more efficient and cost effective,” said Glen Kashuba, CEO of Cerapedics. “As we continue to advance our commercialization strategy for our i-FACTOR Peptide Enhanced Bone Graft, the addition of Doug Kohrs to our board and having Tony Koblish serve as board chair will represent significant advantages for us moving forward.”
Mr. Kohrs has 35 years of experience in the medical device industry as a founder, board member, and executive of many innovative companies and non-profit organizations. He is currently managing director of Responsive Arthroscopy, a company focused on value-based healthcare solutions for sports medicine. Prior to Responsive Arthroscopy, Mr. Kohrs founded Responsive Orthopedics, which was acquired by Medtronic in 2016. He also has served as president and CEO of both organizations. He currently serves on the board of directors of six entities and is the president of the Foundation for Essential Needs, a non-profit focused on eradicating hunger.
“This is an exciting time to join the Cerapedics board of directors, following a historic FDA approval and the very successful commercial launch of i-FACTOR™ Peptide Enhanced Bone Graft,” said Mr. Kohrs. “The company’s proprietary synthetic small peptide technology platform is positioned to change the way surgeons approach spinal fusion procedures, and the medical device industry is taking notice.”
Mr. Koblish is a medical device entrepreneur with 25 years of experience who has served on the Cerapedics board of directors since 2013. He is currently co-founder, president and CEO of TELA Bio, a biosurgical reconstruction company. Prior to founding TELA Bio, Mr. Koblish was president and CEO of Orthovita, a publicly traded orthobiologics and biosurgery medical device company, where he helped grow the company’s valuation from $30 million to a $316 millionsale to Stryker Corporation.
“It has been especially exciting to support the growth and development of Cerapedics over the last four years as the FDA approved i-FACTOR as the first bone graft for use in the cervical spine and only the second PMA-approved bone graft in the spine, and I look forward to expanding my role further as board chair,” said Mr. Koblish. “With the recent publication of two-year Investigational Device Exemption data, and a new partnership with a global life sciences company in DSM Medical, Cerapedics is embarking on the next phase of commercializing novel osteobiologic products.”
Cerapedics is exhibiting at booth 533 at the NASS 2017 annual meeting. For more information, visit www.spine.org/am.
WESTMINSTER, Colo., Oct. 25, 2017
