Johnson and Johnson Set to Make Another Offer To Smith & Nephew-Going After One More Orthopedic Acquisition in the UK Meanwhile Consumer Confidence Is Limited

Smith and Nephew advertised this year that their knee can last up to 30 years, back in April as it was approved by the FDA. Of course we won’t really know until 29 years from now approximately if they do last that long and for that matter will stem cells and regenerative medicine come in to play here too I wonder? There’s already work in progress here.

Future of Joint Replacements – Regenerative Medicine - Dr. Kevin Stone Regrows the Knee Instead of an Artificial Replacement (Video)

FDA Gives 510K Clearance for a 30-year Knee Replacement From Smith and Nephew

Back in September of 2009 the company bought out another UK firm Finsbury to bring into the DePuy division and this was just before the recall broke out at DePuy, perhaps good timing to have another product to add to the corporate portfolio before the laws suits really became mainstream. Johnson and Johnson was also offering money to doctors for the use of patient medical records with the settling of the lawsuits.

Johnson and Johnson Company, DePuy Orthopedics Acquires Finsbury Orthopaedics from the UK

The competition in the hip and knee business is about to get a little smaller with this acquisition by Johnson and Johnson. In looking at both pages there’s seems to be a lot of product to merge together and appears to make the DePuy line a bit larger.

DePuy (Johnson and Johnson) Issues Recalls Hip Replacement Systems And Commits To Working with Related Cost

Here’s a little history on the recall with the FDA warning letter and other details.

DePuy (Johnson & Johnson) - FDA Issues Warning Letter on Marketing Products and Software Not Specifically Approved

In addition there has been other issues besides the implants and Tylenol recalls with fake OneTouch products out there. Just last Friday there was yet even another recall of over the counter products.

Counterfeit Johnson & Johnson OneTouch Products Investigation – One More Good Reason to Start “Tagging” Products for Consumers So We Can Scan for Authenticity

Here we go again, a missed opportunity for consumer and patient safety. I wrote to the FDA one more time so maybe I may have an open ear? Johnson and Johnson certainly is the poster child with the 3 elements that need to be covered from over the counter products, to pharmaceuticals to medical devices with using bar codes to allow anyone to use their smartphone as a scanner to find instant recall and safety information and the FDA would benefit with a simple format of compliance with running a report to check on a synchronized data base of bar codes so in addition to information on the web site, the FDA would instant information on safety and recall compliance. Other companies should certainly take notice too and someone start a pilot program to do something for the consumer this time.

Not necessarily with knee and hip implants, but there have been cases to where recalled devices have missed being pulled from inventory and people have died as they were used in mostly heart and interventional heart surgeries, so again before surgery we could “scan that stent”.

By the way Johnson and Johnson also bought another stent company last year too with Endovascular.

Where’s Some of the Focus for Johnson and Johnson Revenue Cycles – “Legally Patented Stent Wars”?

It’s amazing with the stent wars too that occurred and the millions Johnson and Johnson received, or was it 2-3 billion, that little is being done for consume safety and it appears the confidence level of the average consumer is not there today either.

Tags for Use in Healthcare – Medical Stents, Medications - One Scan Away From Safety Information in Real Time

Here’s some Tweets from hospital IT folks and one who says it would be great to combine Microsoft Tags with RFIDs as they do some of that already, so again when it comes to a recall system that can serve in many places as well as in personal health records and now you can even use bar codes with your cell phone to use PayPal.

Again, Johnson and Johnson with all their products in so many different areas of healthcare could sure stand to build consumer, doctor and business confidence about now and it sure beats being the BP of the pharmaceutical and medical devices industry. BD

Back on target here it will be interesting to see what happens this week with the next offer and see if any forms of hostility enter into the picture as we are seeing some of this with big hospital chains right now too with Community and Tenet and the attempt of of a takeover that could go hostile. BD

Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson is expected to launch a fresh assault on Smith & Nephew in a deal that values the FTSE 100 firm at more than £7 billion, it has been reported.The US firm is understood to be considering making a formal offer for the group after a tentative approach was rejected last year, according to the Sunday Times.

A revised bid is expected to be worth at least 800p a share, well up on the previous approach of 750p a share, which is thought to have been rejected by Smith's board on the grounds that it undervalued the company.

Shares in Smith soared to an all-time high of 735p last week following rumors that it had rejected a bid approach from Johnson & Johnson, although they later fell back to 685p.