You've heard of generic drugs. How about generic orthopedic implants? The growing push to lower healthcare costs, coupled with a changing landscape in which surgeons are increasingly moving under hospital employment, has created room for start-up orthopedic device companies to offer more affordable versions of pricey implants, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Companies like Emerge Medical, run by a former Synthes sales consultant, and The Orthopaedic Implant Company, run by a former Smith & Nephew rep, are able to sell "generic" screws, plates, drill bits and other devices at a lower cost by cutting back on expensive sales tactics, like placing reps in operating rooms.

According to the Journal, pharmaceutical companies have already been controlling costs by cutting sales staffs, and medical device companies may soon follow suit to keep up with hospitals' increasingly tenacious bargaining. But so far, no major players have ventured into the low-cost orthopedic device market, allowing several smaller firms offering cheaper versions of orthopedic devices and implants to emerge in response to customer demand.

While surgeons have historically been the gateway for orthopedic device juggernauts like Zimmer, the Journal notes that the trend of hospitals buying out doctors' practices has put the purchasing power squarely back in administrators' hands. Still, these low-cost companies will have to overcome the challenges of proving that their products measure up against more expensive versions in terms of quality and convincing surgeons that they're worth using even without a hard-sell approach from device reps.

Read the full WSJ report here.

Irene Tsikitas