IMPACT & BENEFITS
MP-ORIF will have a significant impact on various levels:
Market/clients (hospitals, healthcare providers, doctors): shorter surgery time and higher success rate than current
surgeries as there is no need for additional corrective surgeries and the nail may stay in the body for lifetime.
Hence, this represents
50 % lower overall cost for the hospital and healthcare providers (Section 4.7) on one side as well as a better reputation and
increased visibility for the hospitals and the doctors on the other side.
In addition, the doctors and the medical staff are exposed to
less X-ray imaging.
Thus, trauma surgeries can be also offered by small and medium hospitals and private clinics that can’t serve congestions in
large hospitals.
Simplification of the intraoperative equipment will reduce not only the cost per intervention but also the cost
associated to the necessary training of an orthopaedic surgeon.
End-user (patients): shorter post-operation recovery time → patients are more active earlier, with greatly reduced scarring.
Using MP-1TM nails instead of metal ones will eliminate pain as a result of much lower heat conductivity compared to metal.
The patient quality of life will be significantly improved by the drastic elimination of lifelong adverse effects experienced after surgery
and the fact that there is no need for an additional surgery after healing since the implant can stay in the body for lifetime without risk
or discomfort.
Company: an increase in MMATECH’s revenue in the first 5 years after launch of selling MP-ORIF.
By the 5th commercialization
year we will have 8.9 M€ revenue and 16 new employees.
Stakeholders: The reduced need for repetitive X-ray imaging, decrease in number of control visits, shorter hospitalization, no
need for additional surgeries, and the necessary analgesics prescription will lower the public healthcare costs and contribute to
meliorating the austerity European situation
Society: developing economies may gain access to high quality trauma care otherwise impossible.
Women will be the major
beneficiaries of MP-ORIF project (Section 1.3)
NOVELTY
We declare that our new polymeric material can withstand the natural properties required by the joint and may last in the
body at least 25-30 years (Figure 10).
The material chosen for an implant should withstand different load modes (tensile, compression and shear) and resist friction and
wear.
The debris created in hip simulator (5M cycles) were analysed and were all larger than 5 µm, a size which can’t be swallowed
by macrophages thus not causing inflammation.
.
.
ntellectual property and knowledge protection
Device manufacturers use high-performance polymers in a variety of orthopaedic and spinal implants such as lumbar and cervical
spacers.
Many of the screws and rods for spinal implants are also produced from polymers22.
MMATECH holds Patent
USP 6686437 covering all medical applications of the MP-1TM material.
Material composition of the MP-1TM is covered by a trade
secret which has been developed by an outsourced manufacturer (Imitec) in the US for non-medical applications.
A spin-off of this
material was developed for medical use.
We received exclusive rights from the manufacturer for all medical applications.
We used PATENTSCOPE with over 56 million records in order to look for the international patent applications and regional and
national patent collections.
After an exhaustive search we found 5 patents of interest.
None of the patents have the combination of
having the biocompatible material and tailor made solution for a specific bone (such as small femoral bone).
An additional search
revealed 4 patents of interest.
In general, over 100 patents resulted from the search, but the patents of interest were coming from
mostly 2 applicants: NANO ORTHOPEDICS and NEOS SURGERY.
IPR strategy
Based on the results of the search conducted we have freedom to operate.
We will create a new implant design which must be
protected. The kind of protection will be by patent.
We will therefore keep the design of MP-ORIF confidential until a patent will be
applied in T6.2. First meetings with a patent lawyer were already done concerning the patent draft.
They will continue during the
Phase 2 period.
Their costs, including the application fees, are included in the project budget plan.
We have performed a throughout
patentability analysis to ensure our new implant technology will be patentable.
The results allow the new MP-ORIF implant technology
to be patented in target countries (USA, EU).
There are no infringements of third party patents.
We will also register the trademark for
the MP-ORIF’ s name and its logo in the countries where MP-ORIF will be sold.
We will be the sole proprietors from the results that
the subcontractors provide us.
Also, we reserve the exclusive right to publish any results that the subcontractors come up with as part
of the subcontracted tasks.
Any subcontractor will be informed on these statements and will provide us with a written consent on them.
We will also insert a section in the MMATECH’s homepage dedicated specifically for the purpose of presenting the product and the
market, the selling opportunities together with all the necessary contacts (see also T7.3 and D7.1).