Switching real hips and knees with the titanium replacements that Biomet makes is complicated. When a surgeon stalls in front of the dizzying array of instruments he must use in the operation, a Biomet representative guides him with the red dot of a laser pointer.
Customer support is vital to the maker of orthopedic products, as are safety and reliability.
Its customers don't care much about cost. Cheap but shoddy joints, if they fail inside the body, cost more than pricey ones that last forever because the surgery must be repeated. And things are getting better. That market includes plastic implants used to replace cartilage as well as metal ones that replace bone. Different products are used for even slightly different kinds of surgeries.