A spin out company lead by Professor Joost de Bruijn from Queen Mary’s School of Engineering and Materials Science (SEMS) has signed an $80m investment agreement to help develop ground-breaking bone substitutes.
Professor de Bruijn is Chief Executive Officer of Progentix Orthobiology BV, a company who develop synthetic bone substitutes which can be used to trigger and accelerate bone healing and repair. Progentix has close ties to Queen Mary, where de Bruijn’s research focuses on understanding and unravelling the process of material directed bone induction by this novel family of synthetic calcium phosphate bone substitutes.
Progentix announced today (Wednesday 14 January) that it has closed an investment agreement with NuVasive, a medical device company who are focused on developing products for minimally disruptive surgical treatments for the spine.
Professor de Bruijn commented: “NuVasive’s investment allows Progentix to continue developing its unique family of bone graft materials and allows the near term commercialisation of these products.”
Currently available as calcium phosphate granules, the Progentix team are looking to develop the product in putty form and accomplish a complete set of pre-defined development milestones.
NuVasive’s initial commitment will be $15m in cash, followed by an obligation to purchase the remaining equity of Progentix for $45m after reaching specific milestones and a maximum earn-out payment of $25m.
Progentix, founded in 2007 as a spin-out from Twente University in the Netherlands, is funded by BioGeneration Ventures: http://www.progentix.com/
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