Novel Orthopaedic Scaffolds for Spinal Implants

New Market Opportunity
Spine implants are the fastest growing segment in the $7-billion U.S. orthopaedic implants market. However, surgeons have long been awaiting a way to get more reliable results in spinal fusion surgeries. The rate of fusion failure in spine surgeries is 30% to 50%, so huge potential exists for novel devices which minimise or eliminate fusion failure.

Background
Spinal fusion surgery is often the only effective method to treat degenerative disc disease or disk injury, the most common causes of back pain. However, spinal fusion procedures actually required two surgeries –– one to harvest pieces of bone from the patient’s hip (autograft) and a second to implant them into the spine - associated with increased risk of infections and perioperative complications such as chronic pain.

Alternative approaches employ spinal fusion devices such as spinal cages to replace a vertebral body that has been destroyed by disease or injury.

Technology Description
This technology developed by NUI, Galway, enables the optimised ingrowth of bone into the implant scaffold, which in turn enhances inter-locking of the prosthesis with the host environment, and on the other hand, it enables implant manufacturers to optimise the total amount of bone that needs to be implanted into the body, by ensuring there is only as much metal in the scaffold matrix as is necessary to support the loads to which it is subjected. The overall effect of this technology is that it is possible to have spinal implants that do not suffer the same disadvantages as currently available devices, such as spinal cages and screws in terms of stress shielding and consequent non-fusion of the implant with the bone host, whilst also eliminating the need for bone autografts that need to be harvested from a separate surgical site, which is associated with increased risk of infections and peri-operative complications.

Principal Investigator: Dr Dimitrios Apatsidis, NUI, Galway.

Competitive Advantage
Competing products and technologies are devices such as titanium spinal cages and screws. The NUI Galway technology will form a more advanced alternative to existing spinal fusion devices, such as rigid spinal cages, telescopic spinal cages and tapered wedges and screws. The competitive advantages of this invention over the existing products include –

• Precisely engineered scaffold design allowing for optimized load uptake and bone ingrowth.

• Increased use of metal density in areas of higher mechanical loading and the reduction in areas that are usually loaded less in vivo, and in accordance with local loading characteristics.

• No requirement for bone autografts to be harvested from donor sites, which normally necessitates additional surgical sites.

• Minimisation of implantable material.

• Capability of tethering broad range of coatings and bioactive molecules to enhance osteointegration and cell migration following implantation.

• Inter-vertebral disc replacement prosthesis development possible – an evolution to the fusion devices in that they maintain function of the spinal unit rather than fusing its function permanently.

IP status
A patent application relating to the implant and scaffold IP has been filed.

Type of Business Sought
NUI, Galway are interested in entering into licensing agreements and partnerships to develop this platform scaffold for a variety of clinical applications in the spinal implant arena.

Type of Offer: Licensing



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