Regeneration Technologies

Regeneration Technologies, Inc. (RTI), of Alachua, Florida, was a tissue processor, listed on the Nasdaq as RTIX, that bought tissue from Biomedical Tissue Services, the company of Michael Mastromarino. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it was one of five processors that received BTS tissue directly and recalled it in September and October 2005.¹ Among the tissue it bought were bones taken from the body of the broadcaster Alistair Cooke before his cremation in 2004; according to the New York Daily News, his bones were sold for more than 7,000 dollars to Regeneration Technologies and Tutogen Medical.² In 2008 the Associated Press reported that the processors that had bought from BTS faced hundreds of civil suits from recipients.³

RTI Biologics

On February 27, 2008, Regeneration Technologies completed its merger with Tutogen Medical, the other company that had bought Cooke's bones, in a transaction valued at about 205 million dollars; the combined company took the name RTI Biologics, Inc., and kept the RTIX symbol. "RTI Biologics is now positioned as the leading provider of sterile biologic solutions for patients around the world," said its chairman and chief executive, Brian K. Hutchison.⁴