Market Entry Strategy – Development & Implementation

A Case Study – Kyphon Europe and Asia-Pacific

Minimally-invasive spine fracture surgeries using Kyphon’s KyphX instruments involve the insertion of two disposable proprietary balloon devices into the fractured bone. The surgeon inflates the balloons to compact and move the deteriorated bone. As a result of the inflation of the balloons, the collapse caused by the fracture may be reversed. The balloons are then removed, and the newly-created cavity is stabilized by filling it with the surgeon's choice of bone filler material.

The project we undertook for Kyphon involved us temporarily acting as their in-country representative and undertaking a number of tasks to allow them to decide upon an appropriate strategy for Japan.

We jointly developed with them a methodology to achieve a rapid understanding of the Japanese health-care environment for their product, including market potential, competitor products and regulatory/reimbursement issues.

Feedback on the Kyphon technology was obtained from leading surgeons, physicians, key opinion-leaders and professional and scientific associations. A number of academic sites were also selected as potential candidates for hosting clinical trials.