Surgacoll, which has created a bone regeneration product from technology developed at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), has received the CE mark, certifying it for sale throughout the EU and plans to create 25 new jobs in the next three years.
Surgacoll Technologies, a high potential start-up (HPSU) supported by Enterprise Ireland, intends to raise venture capital in two rounds over the next three to four years.
Attaining the CE mark also clears the way for a multi-million euro fundraising drive by the Irish business.
By 2019 it aims to be generating annual sales of more than €50m in the European and US markets, employing 15 people in Ireland by the end of 2016 and 25 by 2019.
Surgacoll to bring two biomaterial products to market
SurgaColl is bringing to market two highly innovative biomaterial products, based on technology developed by the Tissue Engineering Research Group at RCSI, which repair tissue via the recruitment of the body’s own cells.
The first, HydroxyColl, stimulates the regeneration of bone tissue and is a substitute for bone grafts taken from donors or the patient themselves.
The second, ChondroColl, repairs articular joints by stimulating host stem cells to regenerate both bone and cartilage, using the composition and architecture of the biomaterial to actively direct tissue formation.
HydroxyColl has just received CE approval and ChondrocColl will be submitted for CE mark approval in January 2016.
“Most products on the market support bone healing but don’t actively direct it. Products that do drive tissue repair do so with the aid of pharmaceuticals,” said co-founder and CEO of SurgaColl Dr John Gleeson.
“Our products’ unique selling point is that they are drug-free and, as such, free of drug-related safety concerns. We are now entering a very exciting period where we will see the first human implantations of the approved HydroxyColl product in a diverse range of trauma indications at a number of sites across the EU.”
X-ray image via Shutterstock
