An Israeli artificial bone product made from coral has received approval to be sold in Europe for dental and orthopedic procedures.
CoreBone grows its corals in a closed system using patented technology to provide bioactivity and eliminate biological contamination. The corals are bred in a closed farm in the Arava desert, so they aren’t susceptible to marine pollution, contamination and endangerment. They also grow 10 times faster than in nature.
“Bone grafts ideally should have four features,” CoreBone CEO Ohad Schwartz explained to ISRAEL21c. “They must be bioactive, not just a passive scaffold, in order to attract new bone cells; they must be strong enough to support the site, especially for implants; they must allow for being replaced as new bone grows; and they must be porous to enable vascularity,” meaning that blood vessels can grow through them naturally and produce growth of bone from the inside out.
“If you have all those features, you have a very good bone graft,” Schwartz continued. “We have all of those.”
Some organic grafts from animals or humans also have those features, but pose a serious risk of rejection and transmitting disease. Synthetic grafts avoid these risks but are much weaker than natural bone. Alternatives are in high demand as the global markets for orthopedic and dental bone-graft substitutes are expected to reach $3.4 billion and $1 billion, respectively, next year.
“Our product offers the best of both worlds, and therefore it is an optimal solution,” Schwartz explained, adding that a European study found CoreBone to be four times stronger than human bone.
Studies have demonstrated that CoreBone’s material has a higher rate of bio-integration and connectivity with the host bone than leading products in the market.
One of the most common dental procedures today is socket preservation after tooth extraction, accounting for 20 million cases in the U.S. alone.
“If you don’t fill the cavity you will have major loss of bone,” Schwartz said. “The usual practice is to fill it with different bone graft granules. We found that one of the corals we grow has the exact shape and dimensions of tooth roots. So we’re using the natural design of the coral to find a solution for a major indication.”
CoreBone was founded in December 2011 as a portfolio company of The Trendlines Group in Misgav, northern Israel.
The company has six employees and has raised about $2 million from public sources and private investors in Singapore, Israel, and the United States. A new funding round is starting as the company goes into marketing mode.
Schwartz is the former CEO of two med-tech companies, Vaica Medical and Aspect AI. He co-founded the company along with Prof. Itzhak Binderman, an internationally recognized researcher in bone biology and dentistry who formerly headed the dental department and hard tissue lab at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and taught in Tel Aviv University’s School of Dental Medicine.
Applications to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are expected by mid-2017.
As for cost, the coral-based bone grafts will be priced comparably with average bovine-based bone grafts, which sell for about $100 per cubic centimeter in the United States and are being used less frequently because of safety concerns.
“We can offer a very competitive price because nature does the work for us,” Schwartz said.
(via Israel21c)
[Photo: Felix E. Guerrero / Flickr ]