Dive Brief:
- Cook Medical has received a contract to supply implantable devices to hospitals run by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the company said Thursday.
- The one-year contract, which has four one-year extension options, covers Cook’s Zilver PTX drug-eluting peripheral stent, Zenith aortic endografts and other implantable devices.
- Cook said the contract will streamline procurement to enable the DoD to quickly treat military service members, citing another contract it won in October 2023 as evidence it can improve the supply chain.
Dive Insight:
Through the new contract, Cook will make devices available to all DoD hospitals in the U.S. Ross Harvey, Cook’s vice president of supply chain, said in a statement that supply will expand to cover all overseas hospitals “in the coming months.” The contract takes advantage of Cook’s global network to cut the time it takes to get devices to physicians in the DoD network, Harvey added.
The DoD published its most recent notice about a contract awarded to Cook in March. The original solicitation from the DoD covered drug-eluting stents and other cardiovascular products. The DoD listed the total value of the contract, including all options, at $13.7 million.
Cook’s statement follows an October 2023 release about its third contract with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Like the DoD deal, the VA contracts cover the Zilver PTX stent and Zenith aortic endografts. Cook is also supplying the VA with its Biodesign line of biologics products, which are used in tissue repair.
The company framed the contracts in the context of its work to provide a simplified procurement process that enables customers to treat more patients faster.
Cook’s successes with the VA and DoD have come in a period of change at the company, which has laid off 500 people in response to a “significant” shift in its operating environment and sold units to CooperCompanies and C2Dx over the past year.
