Integra LifeSciences, Premier Ink 3-Year Purchase Deal - Analyst Blog

The Orthopedics and Tissue Technologies group of Integra LifeSciences Holding Corporation IART has recently signed a 3-year group purchasing contract with Charlotte, N.C.-based healthcare improvement company Premier, Inc.

Per the contract, Integra will offer small bone orthopedic implants to patients of Premier alliance member healthcare organizations. However, following this seemingly positive news, Integra's share price dropped marginally by 0.9% on Friday.

Per management at Integra, this deal seeks to establish a long-lasting relationship between the two healthcare organizations. Integra expects this contract to help it provide Premier members with the best-in-class products and services aimed at serving upper and lower extremity patients.

This new agreement will allow Integra to meet Premier's needs for orthopedic devices. The deal will also ensure greater access to Integra's entire portfolio, the benefits of which can be reaped by Premier alliance healthcare members.

This marks the initial step in Integra's Enterprise selling efforts to develop larger enterprise contracts to support the company's growth plans over the next 5 years. The pact with Premier is also significant as it represents the company's first agreement of this kind.

The abovementioned deal is well poised to contribute substantially to Integra's Extremities business in 2015 and beyond. However, management expects it to have no significant impact on the company's 2014 financial results.

New Jersey-based Integra is a leading provider of surgical instruments and a manufacturer of orthobiologic products for repair and grafting of bones. The company develops small bone orthopedic implants for treatment of patients with common degenerative conditions impacting the upper and lower extremities at more than 5,200 hospitals and surgery centers in the U.S.

Integra currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Some better-ranked stocks worth considering in the biomedical industry include ANI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ANIP, Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD and Illumina Inc. ILMN. All these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).