Development of the first commercially available recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein (rhBMP-2) as an autograft replacement for spinal fusion and ongoing R&D direction

After several decades of promising research on bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), a product that surgeons can use clinically is now commercially available. More than two decades after Urist’s first observation of demineralized bone osteoinductivity in 1965, a single bone morphogenetic protein was isolated from bone and produced recombinantly (rhBMP-2) [ 1 , 2 ]. The recombinant production of BMP-2 opened the door for the development of a commercial BMP product, since the extraction of these proteins from bone was not a viable commercial option. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.