Spinal Elements Makes Donations to Children’s Charities at NASS

During this year’s annual meeting of the North American Spine Society in New Orleans, La., Spinal Elements celebrated the one-year anniversary of its Hero Allograft and marked the milestone by giving to children’s charities.

The company hosted a celebration at the New Orleans House of Blues on Thursday, Oct. 10, where company officials announced that an estimated $250,000 for children’s charities will have been raised from its Hero Allograft sales by the end of 2013. The donations were split nationally between the Make-A-Wish foundation and the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Two $125,000-check presentations were made that night to local Make-A-Wish and St. Jude representatives, and local Make-A-Wish and St. Jude families were honored and spoke of how the organizations have changed their lives.

Mike Leahy, M.D., one of the first surgeons in the U.S. to participate in Spinal Elements “Pledge to Be a Hero” program, was also honored at the event. Leahy uses Hero allograft exclusively. Rock band Smash Mouth was there to perform and celebrate the event, and dedicated their song “All Star” to the attending families that evening.

Spinal Elements has donated 100 percent of the net proceeds from the sale of its allograft tissue product called Hero to charities benefiting children with life-threatening medical conditions. Although many companies earn significant profits from the sale of allograft, Spinal Elements chose to donate all profits from the sale of its Hero allograft to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Allograft is human tissue that is obtained by way of an authorized gift of a donor and/or their family, and can then be turned into scores of medical products. Every year, 1.5 million allograft products are given to American patients, according to figures cited by the company. Spinal Elements chose to name its first allograft tissue product Hero to honor those whose donation made the tissue donation possible.

Hero was launched last year at the NASS convention in Dallas.

“Spinal Elements sees Allograft as much more than a product or a commodity, “said Jason Blain, president and co-founder of Carlsbad, Calif.-based Spinal Elements. “Allograft is the physical embodiment of a human life and deserves that level of respect. We are honored to be stewards of this precious gift.”

Todd Andres, CEO and co-founder of Spinal Elements, said: “We feel that the best way to pay respect to the donation of human tissue is to donate our efforts to get it to the patients who need it and to extend that gift to ailing children. We refer to that as honoring the gift and paying it forward.”

Hero consists of various configurations of human allograft tissue including demineralized bone matrix in paste or putty form, compressible cancellous blocks and strips, and structural grafts. These types of grafts are typically used in fusion procedures.

Spinal Elements most recently launched its line of Lucent Ti-Bond products that feature a coating of plasma-sprayed titanium on PEEK interbody devices.