Fusion-Focused Legacy Spine Companies Are Walking Away From Spine — But a New Movement Toward Interventional Spine Surgery and Motion Preservation Is Rising
- DoctorpreneurNews
- Oct 16
- 4 min read
As traditional medtech giants divest and retreat from innovation, Harvard-trained orthopedic spine surgeon Dr. Kingsley R. Chin and his physician-led team at KIC Ventures are driving a bold new era — building global markets in outpatient spine care, regenerative biologics, and motion-preserving disc replacements.
The Industry Is Selling Off Its Spine Divisions
Johnson & Johnson’s decision to separate its orthopedics business has reignited a critical conversation about where true innovation in spine is headed. While DePuy’s orthopedic implant division remains strong, its spine business has long been its weakest link. A further spinout — DePuy Spine separating from DePuy Synthes Orthopedics — would not be surprising.
The truth is that spine has always been different. It doesn’t belong in the same box as large-joint orthopedics. The biology, the economics, and the clinical demands of spine are unique — and yet, many legacy companies have treated it as just another product line.
Hospitals and Legacy Firms Are Squeezing Out Innovation
Across the U.S., hospitals are signing exclusive distribution contracts with large spine companies to lower costs. While that may seem efficient, it strangles innovation by locking out smaller innovators and restricting physician choice.
Academic hospitals and spine societies reinforce this cycle by defining “standards of care” that limit surgeons to pedicle screws, TLIFs, and lateral cages — all technologies that have changed little in decades and are now being rebranded with robots and marketing slogans.
This is how innovation dies slowly: not because of lack of ideas, but because bureaucracy and scale suffocate creativity.
The Great Spine Divestment Trend
In the last decade, nearly every major spine player has retreated or been absorbed. The list reads like an obituary for traditional spine innovation:
NuVasive, once the pioneer of lateral interbody cage fusion, was assimilated into Globus, losing its independent identity.
Biomet was acquired by Zimmer, which later spun off ZimVie, only for ZimVie to be sold to Highbridge, marking Zimmer’s full exit from spine.
Stryker divested Stryker Spine, ending decades of spinal innovation.
Integra divested SeaSpine, another withdrawal.
Aesculap divested its ActivL articulating disc replacement.
DePuy Synthes divested ProDisc, its motion-preserving platform.
Orthofix divested its M6 disc replacement following device failure issues.
Boston Scientific recalled Vertiflex, stepping back from interventional spine implants entirely.
Each move signals the same trend: when innovation becomes difficult, the giants divest.
Medtronic, with its heavy focus on robotics and neuromodulation, could be next.
KIC Ventures Saw This Coming
We recognized this pattern years ago.
In 2013, after leading SpineFrontier as a medical device manufacturer, I transitioned the business into KIC Ventures — a physician-founded private equity healthtech group focused exclusively on the future of spine.
Our mission was clear:Stop competing in the commoditized fusion market and build an interventional spine ecosystem centered on preservation, regeneration, and outcomes.
We executed that vision through smart acquisitions and innovation:
AxioMed — the leading viscoelastic disc replacement that restores natural motion instead of eliminating it, with over 10 years of published IDE data and global commercialization launching in 2026.
NanoFuse Biologics — a synthetic 45S5 Bioactive Glass regenerative platform that combines biologics and bone healing, featuring a five-year shelf life and expanding into therapeutic applications beyond bone regeneration.
NANISX — creator of LESS Exposure Spine Surgery (LESS) technologies for outpatient care, advancing beyond traditional MISS based on screws, TLIFs, and lateral cages.
We are guided by our REP principles: Restore Function, Early Intervention, Preserve Anatomy.
A New Era: Physician-Led, Patient-Driven, Privately Held
At KIC Ventures, we are not guided by quarterly earnings or corporate inertia.We are physician-founded, physician-led, and privately held, with most investors being spine surgeons and interventional pain specialists. This independence gives us direct, unfiltered insight into what patients need — not what purchasing committees demand.
Our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Erik Spayde, a Harvard-trained orthopedic spine surgeon, and Chief Technology Officer, Vito Lore, who has worked with me for over 15 years, bring complementary expertise in clinical application and engineering design.
We build technologies that match the outpatient treatment philosophy, not the hospital-centric status quo.
In that sense, we are more like Tesla than Toyota.Traditional medtech companies are optimizing combustion engines — we’re designing the electric revolution.
Empowering Physicians as Investors
Unlike legacy companies owned by Wall Street, KIC Ventures is funded by physicians who own the future of their profession.Through our collaboration with the IRA Club, many of our physician investors have used Self-Directed IRAs (SDIRAs) to invest tax-free, turning retirement savings into long-term equity in healthcare innovation.
This alignment of clinical insight and financial ownership ensures that progress in spine care benefits those closest to patient outcomes — not shareholders detached from the operating room.
Learning from Cardiology: Redefining the Spine Pathway
Just as interventional cardiology disrupted open-heart surgery, the same transformation is coming to spine.
“Hospitals will always have a role,” I often tell colleagues, “but the future belongs to physician-owned outpatient centers built on efficiency, preservation, and early intervention.”
Interventional spine surgery is not just a technical shift — it’s a paradigm shift.It’s about redefining care delivery so that patients get earlier treatment, shorter recovery, and preserved anatomy — without the cost, risk, and delay of hospital-based fusion.
The Real Future of Spine
The future will reward those who restore motion, preserve anatomy, and eliminate unnecessary fusion.Legacy companies may continue to divest, but in doing so, they’re clearing the runway for innovators to take off.
The next chapter of spine will not be written in corporate boardrooms.It will be authored by physician entrepreneurs who believe that interventional spine surgery, regenerative biologics, and motion preservation are not just the future — they are the movement already underway.
Join us and invest.
Visit the website: www.KICVentures.com or call us at +1(855)411-LESS
Media Contact: For Media and Investment Inquiries: Investor@KICVentures.com
Dr. Kingsley R. Chin is a Harvard-trained orthopedic spine surgeon, CEO and Founder of KIC Ventures, and a pioneer in Less Exposure Spine Surgery (LESS) and interventional spine innovation. Through its portfolio companies — AxioMed, NanoFuse Biologics, and NANISX — KIC Ventures is leading the transformation of spine care from hospital-based fusion toward regenerative, motion-preserving, and outpatient solutions. Mobile: 617-697-5442.
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