Project description
Innovative universal biomaterial for bone restoration
The French company NORAKER develops bioactive medical devices for bone regeneration. The company invented a bioactive glass, an innovative biomaterial that triggers osteostimulation for fast and complete restoration of the patient’s bones. The company is developing a universal bioactive composite formulation that will make possible the regeneration of any bone in the skeleton and will be presented as a bone regeneration toolbox. The EU-funded REBOOT project will focus on the feasibility validation of the bioactive composite formulation to include all types of bone trauma and to design all associated implants. The company objectives are to determine the initial products for the toolbox and establish a robust business model to market the toolbox to international customers.
Objective
There are 8 million bone trauma each year in the EU alone, affecting mostly active people and about 1 million children. 20% of all bone injuries require hospitalization and cost ~2 billion euro to healthcare payers each year.
Biomaterial fixation implants are used today to heal these people’s bones but none of them can guarantee their full functional restoration. Implants always leave a mark: a hole, a foreign material (the case of metallic devices) or poor restored functionality (the case of absorbable polymer and recent composite implants). Second surgery is even needed in nearly one third of the cases.
As population ages, finding materials to enable citizens to live a longer active life with a strong, well-preserved bony structure is a top priority.
In this context, the biomaterial company NORAKER has developed the first bioactive composite fixation implant made of a well-tolerated absorbable polymer combined with a revolutionary synthetic biomaterial able to form bone, where it is missing : bioactive glass.
This implant, which addressed the fixation of the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee, showed bone-rebooting performances well above the state-of the-art.
Major stakeholders (surgeons, hospital, specialized distributors worldwide) have been urging NORAKER to develop further implants to address a wide spectrum of bone trauma (fracture, tendon rupture). This persisting demand has convinced NORAKER to develop a full bioactive composite implant toolbox.
To meet this goal, NORAKER will :
- Validate the feasibility of the bioactive composite formulation to target all bone trauma and to design all associated implants
- Determine the first implants to populate the toolbox (outcome of a user and market study) and gain visibility to early-adopters
- Establish a robust business model to market the toolbox straight forward at the global scale.
This is the scope of the project REBOOT.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcompositesbiocomposites
- natural scienceschemical sciencespolymer sciences
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementbusiness models
- engineering and technologyindustrial biotechnologybiomaterials
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologyimplants
Programme(s)
- H2020-EU.2.1.2. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Nanotechnologies Main Programme
- H2020-EU.2.1.5. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Advanced manufacturing and processing
- H2020-EU.2.1.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Advanced materials
- H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
69008 Lyon
France
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.