Apollo EndoSurgery buys Lap-Band- and stumbles

The good news is that Apollo Endosurgery purchased the Lap-Band system from Allergan. This was a move that many surgeons wanted – a company that was innovative and interested in moving forward with the band as a great device in the hands of those that knew how to take care of it.

Allergan stumbled with the band- they made some major mistakes both in lack of marketing, and attempting to get everyone to put in the band instead of focus on those who took care of patients after surgery. But the single person at Allergan who was working hard to support the band was the Vice President, Jim Caggiano. The one person who would listen to the surgeons in the field, and work to make the changes – the one person who provided some direct-to-consumer marketing, made the hard decisions to remove surgeons from the website, and put forward a good product in the hands of those who cared.

The one person that Apollo is not bringing to the new division – Jim Caggiano.

There is something to be said for corporate and institutional memory – and they blew it. Its like buying the New England Patriots and not taking their coach. Dumb move – and now a few hundred surgeons are wondering if Caggiano will make a move to another band, innovate that product to produce a better product.

Dr. Terry Simpson

About the Author

You probably first saw Dr. Simpson on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook or Twitter. Dr. Terry Simpson received his undergraduate, graduate, and medical degrees from the University of Chicago where he spent several years in the Kovler Viral Oncology laboratories doing genetic engineering. Until he found he liked people more than Petri dishes. Dr. Simpson, a weight loss surgeon, is an advocate of culinary medicine. He believes teaching people to improve their health through their food and in their kitchen. On the other side of the world, he has been a leading advocate of changing health care to make it more "relationship based," and his efforts awarded his team the Malcolm Baldrige award for healthcare in 2018 and 2011 for the NUKA system of care in Alaska and in 2013 Dr Simpson won the National Indian Health Board Area Impact Award. A frequent contributor to media outlets discussing health related topics and advances in medicine, he is also a proud dad, author, cook, and surgeon “in that order.” For media inquiries, please visit www.terrysimpson.com.