Amedica Signs Agreement with Kyocera for Commercial Manufacture of Silicon Nitride Medical Devices

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Amedica Corporation, a biomaterials company, today announced a collaboration with Kyocera Industrial Ceramics Corporation, a worldwide leading ceramics producer, to manufacture medical devices from Amedica's Silicon Nitride biomaterial at Kyocera's Vancouver, WA facility. This collaboration includes the manufacture of Amedica's FDA approved Silicon Nitride spinal interbody devices and will broaden Amedica's ability to meet market demand. 

As a biomaterial, Silicon Nitride has been shown to help promote bone growth and has anti-infective properties. Devices made from Silicon Nitride are semi-radiolucent with clearly visible boundaries enabling an exact view of intraoperative placement and postoperative fusion assessment via common imaging modalities. Amedica believes that these are essential characteristics that surgeons seek when choosing the ideal spinal interbody implant for their patients. Amedica has sold over 14,000 of these devices worldwide.

Eric Olson, President and CEO of Amedica Corporation, says, "There is an unmet need for advanced biomaterials in Orthopedics and Spine. We are seeing an increasing interest for our Silicon Nitride interbody devices and increased interest in this material for use in other applications and want to ensure a consistent supply for surgeons and more importantly, patients. As the world's number one producer of advanced ceramics* with vast experience in ensuring market demand is consistently fulfilled for innovative products, Kyocera is the ideal partner to help broaden availability of our novel biomaterial devices."

About Amedica Corporation

Amedica is a commercial biomaterial company focused on using its Silicon Nitride technology platform to develop, manufacture and sell a broad range of medical devices.  Amedica markets spinal fusion products and is developing product candidates for use in total hip and knee joint replacements.  Amedica is a privately owned company founded in 1996. The company operates an ISO 13485 certified manufacturing facility, and, its spine products are FDA cleared, CE marked, and are currently marketed in the US and select markets in Europe and South America. Amedica is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

About KYOCERA

Kyocera Industrial Ceramics Corporation (www.kyocera.com/kicc), headquartered in Hendersonville, NC, specializes in applying advanced ceramic materials and components to solve the most demanding engineering challenges. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kyocera International, Inc. of San Diego, the North American holding company for Kyocera Corporation.

Kyocera Corporation (NYSE:KYO) (TOKYO: 6971) (http://global.kyocera.com/), the parent and global headquarters of the Kyocera Group, was founded in 1959 as a producer of fine ceramics (also known as "advanced ceramics"). By combining these engineered materials with metals and plastics, and integrating them with other technologies, Kyocera has become a leading supplier of advanced ceramic components, medical products, solar power generating systems, telecommunications equipment, printers, copiers, electronic components, semiconductor packages and cutting tools. During the year ended March 31, 2013, the company's net sales totaled 1.28 trillion yen (approx. USD13.6 billion). The company is ranked #492 on Forbes magazine's 2013 "Global 2000" listing of the world's largest publicly traded companies.

* http://www.ceramicindustry.com/articles/93444-ci-top-10-advanced-ceramic-manufacturers

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SOURCE Amedica Corporation