New York Arthrex or Mitek??

Five years out with a screw that got FDA 510k clearance in March 2004? Have I been cryogenically frozen for a year or are you mathematically challenged? If you have sold over 1 million screws thats 970,000 since your last press release and with a US ACL market of 200,000 per year you must have sold every screw used in ACL surgery including those in the year before Milagro was released, genius.
For adverse events relating to medical devices see "FDA Maude" database, type Milagro, its had its share. Milagro was 20 years after researchers first developed calcium based screws and 7-8 years after the first commerically available ones. Look in the mirror, that wool coat you are wearing is that of a sheep not a pioneer.

 

Have to agree with the last guy and I heard they were having issues on the west coast?

 

Milagro is non-existant where I am. Even if they were around, I could care less. Mitek can have the ACL business. Two screws at no more than $160-200 a piece. I'll stick with kicking ass in shoulder, captial and small joint implants.

 

Good thing for you that your cool with it since we have the ACL business. By the way, we charge a bit more for a premium product like the Milagro screw - you know, the screw you guys are trying so hard to copy.

Lets see, biocomposite screw, biosuture tac, pushlock, endobutton... Arthrex running out of original ideas? Aren't you guys the ones who claimed to be the industry leader and always cried foul when supposedly someone took one of your ideas? Little different now isnt it? Have fun playing catchup.

 

Still kicking everyone's ass and taking numbers. Case it point: Previous poster's frustration. Arthrex reps see and hear this everyday.

 

How about that patent infringement with S&N? That is really going to sting.

Not a rep with either party, more of a 3rd party.

Not sure about NY, but in my area of the country....let's call it the Mid-Atlantic region the reps from each company are different.

Company difference: Arthrex - distributorships only. Mitek - Hybrid (20% Distributorships, 80% Direct Employees)

The Mitek guys are more professional, more seasoned, and just more polished. This is rarely their first job out of college. In procedures the reps know how to use not only their products, but also the products of their competitors. In one situation, I have witnessed the circulator run and grab the Mitek rep to help the Arthrex rep and surgeon out with the Bio-Transfix procedure. It was the last time the surgeon used Arthrex in the knee. The management is not cut-thoat and is more than willing to work with a struggling rep. Bottom line is that their game is tight. They look and act like professional all the time. None of the popping open sterile implants before the surgeon asks for them just to ensure that they get to charge for them (like I have witnessed Arthrex reps doing). Mitek as a company has trouble with bringin new products to market. J&J is a very conservative company and is exactly agile with bringing new ideas or products out. Although, they have been getting a little better in the last year or two.

The Arthrex reps are good guys. I know and get along with all but one of them. The problem is that the distributor hires guys right out of college, primarily so he can pay them substantially less and hire more of them. It is not uncommon to have a territory that has 4-5 Arthrex reps and only 1 Mitek rep. The distributor hires several of these guys and camps them out in larger accounts. I am not knocking this strategy, because it has helped them gain some business. They are usually promised the possibility of moving up in the company, but where can you go when you work in a distributorship? It's not like the Agent Principal is leaving anytime soon and he is definitely not giving up any pieces of the pie. The culture of Arthrex seems a little more cut-throat. I witnessed one veteran rep let go after he was out for a month after having a tumor removed. As far as companies go, Arthrex is very, very good at one thing: Marketing. They will put a positive spin on anything and surgeons will buy it. They will send out BS clinicals from China or North Korea and treat it like it's relevant. They will take a product from another company who's patent has expired, repackage it, and sell the hell out of it (ie retro-button).

I guess you'll have to see which company you'd feel at home in. Both have +'s and -'s.

 

I disagree with the previous post. I am an Arthrex rep that was a Mitek rep in another part of the country. I've seen and worked in two different markets and the Arthrex reps have been great in both. I know the mid-atlantic area distributorship is sub-par when compared to the rest of the country. I have talked to a couple of the reps from your area and they are unhappy because the distributor doesn't pay them well. Most distributors pay extremely well; 10-20% compared to Mitek which pays only on growth. The territory I worked in with Mitek was over run with Mitek reps just as you say is being done with Arthrex reps. This is one of the main reasons I left. I also left because the products and corporate BS was a joke. Product development lacks within Mitek; mainly because J&J as a whole could care less about them. Arthrex is a privately held company that produces top products.

As for the lawsuit. These lawsuits occur all the time in the medical industry. Arthrex will appeal this decision which will allow a patent judge to make the appealing decision. Keep in mind that the US Patent office has and is still sticking to their word that Arthrex did not infringe on S&N's ideas.

 

10-20% commission.

Why the variance? That is huge. Why would a rep want to work for 10, when others make 20?

 

Because some make a base salary and others don't. Some are W-2 others are 1099. That's why the variance is huge.

 

Not that I can speak for every territory in every part of the country, but Mitek paying only on growth is just not true. Every direct rep makes a base plus commission, and in four years I have yet to meet a single agent making less than 10% commission and several make more. My associate rep makes a base plus a percentage of the growth number. As for an area being "over run with Mitek reps", sorry but Im going to go ahead and call bullshit on that one. Unless it is a senior rep with perhaps two or three associate reps - three would be stretching it. It is a known fact all over the industry that the Arthrex MO is as many feet on the street as possible.
As for our products, well gee is that why your company is copycatting the Milagro screw as well as our Biocryl Rapide shoulder anchors? Is there anyone Arthrex - this bastion of originality - doesnt try to copy? The joke is on you.

 

Just like Mitek didn't copy the Suturebridge technique with the Versakok? Face it pal, both companies copy each other's ideas etc.

You sound like a little baby........waaahhhh he copied my idea wahhhhhh.

 

Wow!! I found this site by accident!! What a battle!! Sorry Mitek and the rest of you chumps, but Arthrex has kicked your ass. I liked the post about surgeons feeling sorry for Mitek reps, that was great. To the guy who is trying to get in this business, take ANY position that an Arthrex distributor has available. I have been selling Arthrex for 6 years and I have not seen a Mitek rep for 4 of them. Mitek reps can't hit water if they fell out of a boat!! Unless they are paying the surgeon with sexual favors, they will never take our business. Good luck!

 

*yawn* Another Arthrex rep who likely couldnt spell GED if you spotted him the first two letters. See, you lose all credibility with statements like this. Your little corner of the world must be doing very little business, otherwise you would be seeing different Mitek reps. As in my case, I have had five different Arthrex reps in four years.
Go shave your head again and pick out a new tattoo. That seems to be the Arthrex look along with the goattee.

 

The only area of the country Mitek gets any business is the NE. Why? Because your home office is in Mass. Come to the west coast, midwest or the south and Mitek is no where to be found.

 

Let me guess you have toured all those places right? What an idiot. Mitek is nowhere to be found. Well my territory will break the million dollar mark this year, and Depuy Mitek as a company grew over 40% last year.

But no, your right. Certainly no business to be found here..

 

Growing @ 40% to make up for the ground they've lost due to the inept pinheads running the place.

 

40%???

Please supply a link to support this!

 

LOL!!! Smoke another one pal. 40%????? Get real.

As for your territory passing 1 million, I am over the 3 million mark. Let us know when you get to that mark.

 

40%??? Did you really think someone was going to believe that? Well I guess if you expect people to believe that a Versalok is a good option and if you are not embaressed selling an FT anchor after you claimed all you needed was a Spiralok and cortical purcahse was not important, you have no shame... So why should one expect anything different from you now?

Lets pretend for a second that a Versalok actually works and is really a 5.5 mm anchor as you say it is. While we're in la la land lets also pretend that Mitek did grow 40% last year. Then why did you get a mere half of a paragraph in the annual J&J stock holders report that I recieved?? You are still mearly a speck on the J&J map. Half a paragraph??? Are you serious? I would expect such an important comapny in the healthcare industry that is growing at 40% to get some more recognition from their own mother... Wouldn't you?

Who are we kidding here??? We all know a Versalok does not work and we sure as hell know Mitek did not grow 40% last year!!!

Go take a strand of Orthocord and hang your self. Ohh wait it will probably break or absorb 60% before youre done. Make it a fiberwire or even better just to make sure make that a Fibertape.

 

10-12 years ago the territory was probably doing 1.5 million. You, my friend, are the class fool. Run around touting the virtue of a company that has lost substantial market share over the years and pumps its pinheads up by telling them they're growing. Further, things were in such disarray, that J&J gives them a freakin pharmaceutical to sell and tells them that this will be their salvation. Forget that they're a device company. Forget that it was innovative product line and educated, service oriented reps. that got them where they were. Now content to cheer "We're Number 2!" and love every minute of it. Looks like J&J found what they were looking for years ago when they liquidated their sales team...A bunch of mindless twits that will swallow whatever pile of crap those in the ivory tower shove down thier throats.