Knee injection eases way for Anika Therapeutics

If at first you don't succeed, try again with more data -- and more rooster goo.

In a single day in the middle of 2000, the small Woburn medical company Anika Therapeutics Inc. lost two-thirds of its stock market value after a much-anticipated new product -- an injection to help aching knees -- failed to help patients in its key clinical trial. Worse, the Securites and Exchange Commission called to investigate the company's books. Soon medical device giant Zimmer Inc. backed out of a deal to distribute the knee-injection product.

Fast-forward a few years. Armed with more medical trial data, Anika managed to get its product approved by the Food and Drug Administration and sign a distribution deal with a bigger company, Johnson & Johnson. The SEC investigation ended without a fine. Its knee injection, OrthoVisc, has been on the market for two years, enjoying steady sales growth.

Today, Anika Therapeutics is the fastest-growing public firm in Massachusetts, according to The Globe 100's ''Growth 50" rankings. During the last two years, its revenue has grown by an average of 39.2 percent each year, and its annual profits 166.9 percent.

Anika's gotten some important profit boosts from one-time payments for clinical trials and marketing deals.

But its record also shows the power of having the right goo at the right time.

Anika specializes in just one thing: hyaluronic acid (HA), a cushioning and lubricating material found inside the body's joints. When people get older and lose HA, they feel creaking and pain in their knees. Anika's version of HA is extracted from the combs of roosters. It replaces the missing cushion. For patients, a short series of injections relieves pain for up to six months.

Anika faces some big competitors. Chief among them is Genzyme Corp. of Cambridge, which sells Synvisc -- a similar substance currently inside the knees of Red Sox pitchers Keith Foulke and David Wells. Anika has a tiny share of the market, less than 10 percent. But new chief financial officer Kevin W. Quinlan estimates the total market for HA knee injections is more than $300 million, and as the ''new kid on the block," Anika expects its share can grow.

Looking ahead, the company is testing its goo for a whole new market: cosmetic surgery, where HA could be a less-permanent alternative to collagen injections to plump up wrinkled skin. Again, there has been a bump in the road -- partner J&J pulled out of a deal to market the product -- but Anika expects an FDA decision later this year, and hopes to get it to market.

Stephen Heuser can be reached at sheuser@globe.com.