Exactech’s Truliant® Knee System Instrumentation Honored with International Design Excellence Award (IDEA®)

GAINESVILLE, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Exactech (Nasdaq:EXAC), a developer and producer of bone and joint restoration products and biologic solutions for extremities, knee and hip, announced today that the new Truliant® Knee System’s surgical instrumentation received a bronze award in the 2017 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA®). Sponsored annually by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), the 2017 winners were recognized on Aug. 19 in Atlanta, Ga.

Exactech’s Truliant Knee System offers a comprehensive portfolio of implants and instrumentation to help surgeons address the remaining clinical challenges of total knee replacement. The goal of the ergonomic instrumentation design is to help surgeons make accurate and consistent bone cuts and adjustments to the joint during total knee arthroplasty. The designs embody Exactech’s brand strategy and offer surgeons a reproducible and efficient experience through:

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• Texturing and blue accents which indicate touch points for adjustability and functionality,
• Elegant black background for high-contrast markings and easily identified grip locations,
• Dials that offer tactile and auditory feedback with every click, and
• Textured surfaces on handles and specific points which provide a secure grip and accommodate mechanical and functional needs of the user.

The industrial design project, a first for the company, was led by Exactech’s knee business segment. According to Laurent Angibaud, director of knee and CAS engineering at Exactech, “Merging customer input with solid design principles, our industrial design and technical engineers optimized the function and appearance of new instrumentation to improve user experience, which is core to our surgeon-focused culture. This award demonstrates Exactech’s commitment to developing solutions to address real clinical needs.”

Design Team Surgeon Sudheer Karlakki, FRCS (Orth) at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom commented: “Truliant provides a harmonious balance of both functional improvements and format enhancements with a color scheme that aligns with the Exactech brand. An important design emphasis was placed on users being able to pick up any instrument and easily get a sense of its important working features. With its ergonomic and intuitive design intentions, surgeons and hospital staff should have an instant connection to the system; that is the real beauty of Truliant.”

Surgical teams across the country have been experiencing the benefits of Truliant through the system’s initial rollout and first cases. According to Tomas Nemickas, MD of Illinois Bone and Joint Institute, “My impression of the new Truliant system is that Exactech has done a fantastic job at fine-tuning a new set of instruments to allow for a more predictable and reproducible outcome. The award is well deserved and demonstrates what I have experienced firsthand with the Truliant Knee System.”

Certified Surgical Technologist Mary Joy Tanada from Stanford University said, “I was unbelievably surprised with the ease of use and simplicity of the Truliant instrumentation. The tools are well balanced in surgeons’ hands and easy to understand. The system is modular and organized into four trays that are all interchangeable based on needs of the case, making it streamlined and efficient for the entire surgical team.”

IDEA is a premier international design competition sponsored annually by the IDSA and judged by renowned design experts from around the world. The 2017 competition attracted hundreds of entries from 54 countries on six continents.

About Exactech

Based in Gainesville, Fla., Exactech develops and markets orthopaedic implant devices, related surgical instruments and biologic materials and services to hospitals and physicians. The company manufactures many of its orthopaedic devices at its Gainesville facility. Exactech’s orthopaedic products are used in the restoration of bones and joints that have deteriorated as a result of injury or diseases such as arthritis. Exactech markets its products in the United States, in addition to more than 30 markets in Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific. Additional information about Exactech can be found at http://www.exac.com.

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This release contains various forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which represent the company’s expectations or beliefs concerning future events of the company’s financial performance. These forward-looking statements are further qualified by important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These factors include the effect of competitive pricing, the company’s dependence on the ability of third party manufacturers to produce components on a basis which is cost-effective to the company, market acceptance of the company’s products and the effects of government regulation. Results actually achieved may differ materially from expected results included in these statements.