About us

Lépine is a company with a 300-year history. Discover how we evolved, which values we embody and who we are today!

Discover our history through these milestones

 

300 years serving surgery

1714

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.

1860

Development of surgical instruments business

 

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

1900 - 1950

Supporting the development of medical art

 

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

1950 - 1988

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.

1988

Purchase of the Maison Lépine

 

from the fourteenth generation by Patrick Pfaifer.

1994

Conception and launch of the company’s first femoral stem

 

within the scope of the CE mark.

2002

Purchase of a first plasma torch

 

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

2005

Learning of the forge craftmanship

 

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

2008

Moving to the site of Genay

 

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

2013

Enrichment of expertise with the integration of ceramics

 

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

2015

Logistics are enriched by a series of smart cabinets

 

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

2016

Acquisition of a precision foundry

 

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

2020

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.

2021

Opening of a range of shoulder prostheses

 

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

Any questions?

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