Aberdeen, United Kingdom, January 10, 2017 – SIRAKOSS Ltd., a UK-based medical device company developing innovative bone grafting solutions for the $3 billion global orthopaedic market, has announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted two patents for its bone graft technologies. SIRAKOSS’ patent portfolio encompasses advanced synthetic bone graft technologies which form the company’s product pipeline designed to address the significant clinical need for a fully-synthetic, standalone bone void filler. SIRAKOSS’ technologies provide consistently effective bone regeneration without the established risks found by using either autograft or therapeutics-based products such as BMP’s.
The two new granted patents are important additions to SIRAKOSS’ intellectual property estate and significantly enhance the company’s technology and product pipeline. Patent US 9,492,591 describes novel formulations of putty products, where the SIRAKOSS core technology may be combined with modified resorbable polymer carriers to produce a bone graft with improved handling characteristics and enhanced efficacy. The second patent (US 9,492,585) describes a range of bone graft technologies with specific microstructural properties that expands the potential products that SIRAKOSS can develop. These two new patents add to SIRAKOSS’ robust existing granted patents in Europe, Japan, Australia and China, and to the company’s core IP estate in the USA, Japan and Australia.
These patent grants occur as SIRAKOSS is advancing the development of its lead technology in Europe toward market.
The company’s proprietary technology is entirely synthetic, containing no human tissue and can be manufactured in consistent, high quality batches. Surgeon feedback on pre-clinical performance data and handling properties of the SIRAKOSS bone graft substitutes, when compared to currently available products, has been very encouraging. The alternative approach against which all other options are measured is autograft – the ‘gold standard’ – where healthy bone is harvested from the patient’s hip and replanted at the defect site. The amount of bone that is available for grafting is limited, particularly in children, and requires two invasive operative procedures, increasing the risk for the patient and the cost for the hospital. Other alternatives have seen products derived from cadaver bone, but these can be inconsistent in their performance.
Brian Butchart, CEO of SIRAKOSS, said “The granting of these two patents endorses the breadth of our technology and provides SIRAKOSS further protection for its unique product offerings in the largest single market for bone graft substitutes.”
Investor director, Sinclair Dunlop, Managing Partner at Epidarex Capital, said “this welcome expansion of SIRAKOSS’ global IP estate furthers the competitiveness of the company’s core technology and its potential for meeting a large market, driven by patient needs.”
Synthetic bone grafts are used in trauma, spinal and dental surgery to fuse bones together to correct congenital or degenerative conditions (such as curvature of the spine) or following a traumatic injury where the bone fails to heal.
About SIRAKOSS Ltd.
SIRAKOSS Ltd is a medical device company that is developing synthetic bone graft technologies that will compete in a $3 billion global market. Bone graft substitutes are utilised in various orthopaedic and dental surgical procedures. SIRAKOSS is developing a number of products that will offer surgeons solutions to challenges that exist with current technologies, and are progressing these towards commercialisation. SIRAKOSS‘ patent portfolio provides protection for different types of synthetic bone grafts that form a product pipeline with products that have different properties related to new bone formation. This broad scope of technologies enables SIRAKOSS to develop a range of synthetic bone graft substitutes with significantly enhanced bone growth properties. This provides the opportunities to develop products that would perform against other bone graft approaches, namely autograft, processed allografts and other synthetic bone graft substitutes. www.sirakoss.com
About Epidarex Capital
Epidarex Capital invests in early-stage, high growth life science and health technology companies in under-ventured markets within the UK and US. Epidarex was created to meet the need for more sector-specific risk capital for young companies, including spin-outs from leading research universities. The fund’s international management team has a track record of successfully partnering with top scientists and entrepreneurs to develop highly innovative products for the global healthcare market. For further information please visit www.epidarex.com.