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Orthopedic device makers and Warsaw, Ind. region receive $7 million grant for strategic initiative
Orthopedic device manufacturers Biomet, DePuy Orthopedics and Zimmer, based in Warsaw, Ind., along with key local industry, community and educational partners, announced plans at a press conference yesterday to cooperate in a regional orthopedic resourcing plan.
Lilly Endowment Inc. awarded a $7 million grant for the initiative, called OrthoWorx, which is the single largest private foundation grant awarded in the region, according to a press release.
Top executives from the three orthopedic companies participated in the press conference.
The OrthoWorx initiative will include an orthopedic business league and a new charitable foundation designed to promote growth and innovation within the region’s uniquely concentrated orthopedics device sector.
“We are pleased that a promising plan and framework have been developed, after many months of deliberation and good effort, to secure and enhance the region’s competitive appeal to the orthopedic industry now and in the future,” N. Clay Robbins, president of Lilly Endowment, stated in a press release from the Kosciusko County Community Foundation (KCCF) and BioCrossroads in Indianapolis.
The OrthoWorx initiative will engage and enhance the broader community interests that serve and depend on continued growth in the orthopedic sector, including educational, workforce and cultural efforts. The initiative and support funding will help ensure that Warsaw, Ind., and Kosciusko County remain competitive in the orthopedic industry in the future, according to plans outlined in the release.
The impetus to establish OrthoWorx came from an Endowment-funded study conducted by BioCrossroads. The study, “Warsaw, Indiana: The orthopedics capital of the world — An overview, analysis and blueprint for future industry and community growth,” explored the orthopedic sector’s assets and challenges and included action-oriented recommendations for securing and advancing the community’s current position as home to nearly a third of the world’s orthopedic device industry.
“OrthoWorx will become the voice that promotes the presence and potential of the Warsaw-based orthopedics industry and the community that supports it,” David Johnson, BioCrossroads president and chief executive officer, said in the release.
The OrthoWorx leadership team will be locally based and assembled in the coming months.
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