Ascendx Spine™ appoints Eric W. Gilbert as Vice President of Sales & Marketing for its U.S. operations.

WINTER PARK, Fla., Mar 23, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Ascendx Spine™ ( www.ascendxspine.com ) announced today that it has appointed Eric W. Gilbert as Vice President of Sales & Marketing for its U.S. operations, effective immediately.Earlier in his career, Gilbert was Director of Corporate Business Development at Stryker Corp., by whom he was employed for nearly nine years until July 2007. During his tenure at Stryker, he held various marketing and business development roles and was responsible for creating and launching the entire Stryker Interventional Spine product platform. Following Stryker, Gilbert was Director of Marketing for the Fracture business of Spine Wave, a company focused on commercializing technology platforms that offer surgical solutions for spinal fusion, vertebral body replacement, nucleus replacement and augmentation. Most recently, he was Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing, for Universal Medical, a regional distributor of spinal and orthopedic implants and pharmaceuticals and a worldwide distributor of bracing equipment.
“Eric will play a lead role in rolling out the U.S. launch of our initial FDA-cleared product, the Ascendx Acu-Cut VCF Augmentation System,” said Julian M. Mackenzie, CEO of Ascendx Spine.Mr. Gilbert holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a marketing focus from Western Michigan University.
A vertebral compression fracture (VCF) forces a vertebra to collapse, and the spinal column above it to assume an abnormal forward curve, resulting in considerable back pain and a hunchbacked appearance. Current standard procedures for treating VCFs are ‘Vertebroplasty’ and ‘Kyphoplasty.’ The Acu-Cut Vertebral Augmentation System is designed to be an alternate solution for physicians who are currently treating VCF patients. Acu-Cut is a uni-pedicular vertebral augmentation system that creates a cavity for precise cement placement. While traditional technologies require passing next to both sides of the spinal cord to reach the entire vertebral body, the Acu-Cut Vertebral Augmentation System is designed to achieve this through single-sided access.