Mobi-C, ProDisc, Dr Marnay, and the SAS conference in Montreal

Update on Mobi-C and relative lack of info/ absence at the SAS conference in Montr�al:

My investigations have yielded this info to date: Dr Thierry Marnay was a key inventor of the ProDisc. The doctors who eventually founded LDR Medical (US: LDR Spine)subsequently broke away from Marnay and worked on their own products based on their previous experience with Dr Marnay and the ProDisc. The Mobi and the Mobi-C are among them.

I was told that LDR tried to present 4 papers at the SAS conference this year, but only one was accepted due to 'lack of time', and it is on prothesis centering. These other papers would have included the preliminary results on the first implantations of the Mobi-C. They were refused. If you look at the SAS program, ProDisc is everywhere.

Other information from representatives of LDR indicated that Dr Marnay was a key organizer of the SAS conference, and suggested a less-than-amicable relationship between Dr Marnay and his former colleagues who branched off. There was a clear allusion to stonewalling of LDR Spine and its products made to me.

I did obtain some preliminary results of the Mobi-C, which of course look good. I was told that more complete results would be made public within a few months.

For those of you considering the Mobi-C trials, this info might be both interesting and reassuring, even if precious little concrete info and virtually no long-term data is available right now. Thought the community was entitled to be aware of this bit of commercial conflict and alleged manoeuvering.


Trace

[Alastair]

It might not be as exciting as being at the SAS conference, but there's always a report on it and who said what on the Internet at a slightly later date.
Cheers,
Alastair

[Harrison]

Wow, these are very interesting dynamics at play here, which unfortunately may have a huge impact as to how and which device products make it to the marketplace. Thanks for sharing this.

[Fortitudine]

Politics, politics, they're everywhere, aren't they?
It is to be hoped, though, in medicine, that they don't get in the way of progress, heh, heh.*

With the history you have given us, Trace, it does make sense that LDR might get stonewalled; on the other hand, from the absence of a useful website until now, one might gather that they truly were late in their submissions...

*Dr. David Kuntz is a case in point - invented ADR years ago but thumbed his nose at the system and has lost his license to practise...

[ans]

Interesting. I had to get the cached version as the link was dead re: David Kuntz - an amazing guy.

http://tinyurl.com/jxhge

"With the history you have given us, Trace, it does make sense that LDR might get stonewalled; on the other hand, from the absence of a useful website until now, one might gather that they truly were late in their submissions..."

True, and the website is pretty basic as far as info is concerned (nothing like here), but when I said 'lack of time' beign a factor in refused submissions, it wasn't that they were LATE. The organizers told LDR Spine there wasn't enough time to allow them to present more than the paper of device centering.

I can't access that D. Kuntz link????

Trace

[ans]

Trace: http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:3N87m3-iLKsJ:www.gi...n&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3

[Mariaa]

ans,
What an interesting link! Sure wish there was a Giraffe working on the CA. WC legislation ~

Wonder if Kevorkian was an official Giraffe?

Ans, that one worked, thanks. Amazing. Losing his licence because helping people who had nowhere else to turn, for free, raised to many prickly legal issues. Some things are just baffling.

Mariaa, until law evolves with respect to suffering, I'd imagine any would-be Giraffes in WC legislation would suffer pretty much the same fate as Kuntz and Kevorkian.

Trace