About us

Birth of the Maison Lépine

created by Philippe Martin de Lespinaz (1962-1754) in Lyon. This Swiss knife-grinder flees the religious wars that oppose Catholics and Protestants and settles on the Pont du Change between Saône and Rhône rivers.

Development of surgical instruments business

thanks to the cutlery skills of the Lepine family, which were essential to surgery at that time.

Supporting the development of medical art

in Lyon through the development and the commercialisation of instrumentation and personalized technique at the surgeons’ request.

Mechanization and industrialization

of the company’s traditional manufacturing thanks to steelworks’, tubes and screws manufacturers’, and polishers’ progress.

Establishment of a partnership with the Rockefeller faculty of medicine

of which the company becomes the official supplier. This allows it to make itself indispensable for the equipment of every doctor’s office in the region.

Purchase of the Maison Lépine

from the fourteenth generation by Patrick Pfaifer.

Conception and launch of the company’s first femoral stem

within the scope of the CE mark.

Purchase of a first plasma torch

that allows the development of bilayer coating composed with porous titanium and hydroxyapatite, which covers all our implants.

Learning of the forge craftmanship

through the buyout of the Sanortho factory in Orthez which currently manufactures more than 25 000 stems per year.

Moving to the site of Genay

to gather in a same place the group’s activities of conception, manufacturing, packaging and clinical monitoring activities.

Enrichment of expertise with the integration of ceramics

for the development, conception and manufacture of femoral heads on the Orthez site.

Logistics are enriched by a series of smart cabinets

that allow to significantly increase the volume of packages shipped each day.

Acquisition of a precision foundry

in Germany in order to internalize the realisation of all the foundry crudes of implants with complex geometry.

Handover of the company’s management

to Rodolphe and Valentin Pfaifer, perpetuating the legacy of an independent family business.

Contribution to the health crisis’ national efforts

by reshuffling the spling production to make masks.

Opening of a range of shoulder prostheses

thanks to the acquisition of a majority stake in 3S Ortho and its range ARAMIS™.