Spine Wave Announces Partnership With MB Innovations

SHELTON, CT--(Marketwire - Dec 20, 2011) - Spine Wave, Inc. today announced that the Company has entered into an agreement with MB Innovations ("MBI"), a newly formed product development company based in Memphis, TN. MBI will initially develop products exclusively for Spine Wave while they expand their infrastructure in anticipation of taking on additional medical device clients. This partnership was conceived in collaborative discussions between Spine Wave and MB Venture Partners over the last year. In order to solidify the partnership and closely align interests, MB Venture Partners will be investing in Spine Wave.

MBI will assemble an accomplished team of engineers and advisors who have experience in developing commercially successful medical devices. The team will be led by Troy Drewry, President of MBI. Troy began his career in product development at Medtronic Sofamor Danek and most recently held the position as V.P. of US Operations for Paradigm Spine. Mike Sherman, a partner at MB Venture Partners, will serve as Executive Chairman of MBI. Mike's product development career spans over 20 years at Synthes, Smith + Nephew and Medtronic Sofamor Danek where he generated over 90 issued US patents.

"We are excited to connect Spine Wave's engineering team with the team at MBI," said John Pafford, Spine Wave's Chief Technology Officer. "Mike, Troy and I worked together for several years while at Sofamor Danek and I have the utmost respect for their capabilities. We have already identified the initial product opportunities which will leverage Spine Wave's intellectual property portfolio. I am confident that MBI will accelerate the pace at which we execute on our mission of delivering important and highly differentiated technologies to the spine surgeon community."

Spine Wave recently announced the continued development of its family of PEEK spacers utilizing Spine Wave's proprietary expandable technology with the introduction of the StaXx^® XDL Expandable Device which is the company's first device intended to be implanted using a lateral surgical approach. As the Company looks forward, 2012 will mark the launch of a cervical product family and further offerings within the percutaneous fixation systems. With a rapidly increasing product offering, Spine Wave intends to aggressively expand its US distribution presence and is actively recruiting sales managers and distributors.

"We are very excited to enter into this unique and highly collaborative arrangement," commented Mike Sherman. He continued, "MBI's goal is to rapidly develop the next generation of novel spine products for Spine Wave as we build MBI into a significant entity capable of supporting multiple clients. The abundance of engineering talent in this area makes Memphis the ideal location for this type of company. Spine Wave is the ideal partner because they are committed to innovation and they are rapidly assembling the distribution network necessary to achieve commercial success."

About Spine Wave

Spine Wave is committed to the development and delivery of high-quality innovative medical devices for the treatment of spinal disorders. The Company is focused on commercializing technology platforms that offer spine surgeons novel and useful solutions to common surgical problems. The Company's product portfolio includes the StaXx^® XD Expandable Device, StaXx^® XDL Expandable Device, CapSure^® PS2 Spine System, Sniper^® Spine System, StaXx^® FX Percutaneous Vertebral Augmentation, NuCore^® Injectable Nucleus, the Ni-Lock™ Cervical Plate System and Accent™ Cervical Interbody Spacer and several additional products in development. For further information, visit the Company's website at www.SpineWave.com.

About MB Innovations

MB Innovations, Inc ("MBI") is a newly-formed medical technology development company committed to providing research, design and development services to established firms on a fee-for-service basis. MBI will also focus on the creation of technologies and intellectual property that will be the basis for new venture formation and job creation. MBI intends to take advantage of the Memphis region's workplace and logistics advantages in the medical device field, especially the musculoskeletal disease sector. MBI's team of accomplished engineers and surgeon advisors will accelerate the time to market through a focused approach to product development.
For further information, visit www.MBI-Memphis.com.

About MB Venture Partners

MB Venture Partners is a Memphis-based venture capital firm that provides equity capital and strategic direction to life sciences start-ups. The Firm invests in medical device and biotechnology companies at various stages of development and has now funded 24 start-ups. The Firm is especially focused on product solutions for musculoskeletal conditions, where we have specific domain expertise and relationships to assist portfolio companies. For more information, visit www.mbventures.com.