Conformis Bolsters Management Team
Company Appoints Philipp Lang, MD, MBA to Chief Executive Officer
Burlington, Mass.— January 28, 2008—Conformis, Inc., a privately held company that develops and commercializes minimally invasive medical devices for the treatment of osteoarthritis and joint damage, announced today that Founder and Chairman Philipp Lang, MD, MBA, has been appointed to Chief Executive Officer, and Patrick Hess, PhD has been appointed to Senior Vice President of West Coast Operations.
Patrick Hess, PhD, who recently stepped aside as CEO of Conformis in order to recover from treatment for prostate cancer, will assume the position of Senior Vice President, West Coast Operations in the Redwood City , CA office. He will also maintain his position on the company’s Board of Directors. During Dr. Hess’s tenure as CEO, among other accomplishments, the company launched the iJig™ surgical guidance system, three patient-specific knee implants, including the iForma™, iUni™, and iDuo™, obtained six FDA clearances and two CE Marks, and moved the company’s operations to Massachusetts as it grew to more than 45 employees.
“Pat came in at a critical time of the company’s growth and did a remarkable job in taking the company from an R&D phase into a mid-size, revenue-producing operation,” said Ken Fallon, former President of Zimmer USA and member of the Conformis Board of Directors. “We expect 2008 to be a breakout year for Conformis and we are confident that Philipp is the right person to lead the organization into its next phase of growth and innovation.”
Dr. Philipp Lang founded Conformis in 2004 and has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors and member of the Scientific Advisory Board. In this role, he has set the strategic vision for the company and defined product development priorities. Dr. Lang was appointed CEO in mid-January.
Dr. Lang’s management track record includes positions as the Director of the Musculoskeletal Radiology Division and Distinguished Weissman Chair at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School . Dr. Lang has an extensive background in the medical device industry and has provided strategic leadership and project development as an inventor of more than 80 patents, pending or issued, in the U.S. and abroad. He has an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
“This is an exciting time for Conformis as we continue to seize market share, enhance our innovative line of knee implants and increase our global footprint,” said Philipp Lang, MD, MBA. “We are in an excellent position to accelerate the adoption of our unique resurfacing implants and to demonstrate the benefits of our patient-specific approach to implant design and instrumentation.”
Conformis recently received CE Mark approvals for both the iUni™ uni-compartmental resurfacing device and the iJig™ instrument system for use with the iUni on December 3, 2007. Both products were CE Mark approved separately, providing regulatory approval for Conformis to begin sales of these products throughout the European Union.
About Conformis, Inc.
Conformis, Inc. is a privately held company incorporated in 2004 that develops and commercializes medical devices for the treatment of osteoarthritis and joint damages. The Company’s novel and scaleable ‘image-to-implant’ process is comprised of two related technology platforms. iFit™ Technology enables the creation of conforming, patient-specific implants that are precisely sized and shaped to match the 3D topography of the patient’s anatomic bone surfaces. The iJig™ Instrumentation enables the creation of novel disposable instrumentation that radically simplifies and improves the surgical process.
Both platforms are supported by proprietary intellectual property consisting of more than 120 issued, allowed and pending patents or patent applications that span imaging software, image processing, novel implant designs, surgical techniques and instrumentation.
To date, Conformis has developed a comprehensive line of minimally traumatic, bone and cartilage-preserving knee implants and instrumentation designed to address all stages of osteoarthritis, the most common reason for knee replacement surgery. Each of these devices has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration for marketing in the U.S.
