Orthogem Ltd has raised £250,000 to develop its synthetic bone graft material.
A substantial chunk of the new finance came from business angel investors in The Oxfordshire Investment Opportunity Network (OION), rated as Europe’s most successful business angel network. Additional funds have been secured from a mix of investors including NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), The Oxford Technology 2 Venture Capital Trust, as the lead investor, and private investors.
At its base in Nottingham UK, Orthogem is developing a synthetic bone graft material for use in a large and growing orthopaedic market for synthetic bone substitutes worldwide. Bone is among the most commonly transplanted materials - in fact second only to blood for transfusion. Nearly 2.2 million bone transplants are carried out each year, worldwide, of which nearly half-a-million are in the US. While 90% of bone grafts currently use bone harvested directly from the patient (autograft) or cadaver bone from a “bone bank” (allograft), both of these procedure are somewhat risky, expensive and depend on resources that are severely limited.
Dr Wei Jen Lo, Managing Director of Orthogem, explains that the "heart of Orthogem’s technology" is to understand the complex, multilayered porous structure of bone.
"Conventional ceramic manufacturing processes have been unable to replicate such a complex porous structure – until now". Trials at UCL’s Centre for Biomedical Engineering (based at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital) have shown that Orthogem’s synthetic implants led to a rapid new bone growth of unprecedented high quality, organised and well vascularised.
The results also showed that the materials were able to transform connective tissue cells into osteoprogenitor cells.
"Such promising data indicates that Orthogem’s materials have the potential to replace the current autograft and allograft in many orthopaedic applications. Looking to the future, the material has been designed with the ability to carry engineered drugs such as BMPs (Bone Morphogenic Proteins), allowing the controlled release of these molecules into the site of interest."
Dr Lo praised the role played by The Oxfordshire Investment Opportunity Network (OION) in raising vital finance: "OION could not have been more helpful. The funding we have raised through OION and the other investors will enable Orthogem to continue development, seek a commercial licensing partner and fully test the material in a series of clinical trials."
Congratulating Orthogem, Alastair Cavanagh, Manager of OION, said OION "supports innovative companies like Orthogem by offering them access to our business angel members who can provide management expertise as well as vital development capital."
The initial investment raised through OION has attracted additional investors to back company with a promising technology a high growth potential.
Keywords : Bone Synthetic transplant material Orthogem Nottingam UK Development finance The Oxfordshire Investment Opportunity Network (OION) National Endowment for Science Technology and Arts (NESTA) Oxford Technology Venture Capital Trust
