Pioneer Surgical Enters China
Pioneer Surgical Technology, which has a research facility in Greenville started with the help of $190,000 in funding from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in 1995, has entered the Chinese market with its full range of spinal-fusion products.
Pioneer's Chinese partner, Bonovo Orthopedics, Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of orthopedic products, has received its government's approval to distribute Pioneer's full product line there.
Pioneer, which has R&D and manufacturing facilities in Greenville and in Woburn, Mass., won the prestigious Frost & Sullivan 2009 North American Technology Innovation of the Year Award for its E-Matrix Tissue Scaffold, launched in the United States at the beginning of the year.
The Marquette, Michigan-based firm entered North Carolina's orthobiologics scene in 2007 when it bought the small Greenville-based startup firm Encelle, which had developed the E-Matrix tissue regeneration scaffolding technology for orthopaedic and other therapeutic uses. Encelle's start-up was aided by the Biotechnology Center funding.