Active Implants LLC has closed the first tranche of $8.7 million in new funding for its knee repair technology.
Active Implants Secures Funding for Trial
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A total of $26 million has been committed by View Capital RIA, L.P. in Dallas, Texas and River Street Management in Memphis, Tennessee.
The proceeds will be used to fund a multi-center trial on the company’s NUsurface Meniscus Implant and initiate a randomized clinical trial to support applications for U.S. regulatory approval. Patients are currently being enrolled in Europe and Israel.
According to Elliot Hershman, M.D., the implant is a “novel, composite polymer implant which is used to treat knee patients who have pain and disability arising from osteoarthritis caused by a previous meniscectomy, meniscus dysfunction or insufficiency. The NUsurface Meniscus Implant was designed to meet the needs of patients too old for meniscus repair and too young for a total knee replacement.” Hershman is chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York and Active Implants’ chief medical officer.
“Demonstrated Superiority”
Henry Klyce, the company’s chairman and CEO said clinical studies outside the U.S. have “demonstrated the superiority of the implant over current standard-of-care treatments.” The implant, added Klyce, “is designed to fill a significant treatment gap between non-operative care and knee replacement surgery.” Company management estimates the potential worldwide market for the product to be in excess of $2.0 billion annually.
The company has been working with leading knee sports medicine surgeons in Europe and Israel on a prospective controlled, multi-center trial of the device. Peter Verdonk, M.D., Ph.D., from Orthopaedic Center Monica Hospitals Antwerp and the University of Ghent, Belgium, has enrolled patients in the study for two years. He said, “I am impressed with the results observed to date and believe this technology could represent a new method of treating patients with meniscus problems who are often on a long and painful progression to knee replacement.”
The company was founded in 2004 to develop and commercialize a new platform technology made from medical grade polycarbonate urethane. The founders were Amiram Steinberg, who previously founded Implant Ltd. (former DISCure), and Limber Ltd., and Steven Bradshaw, a U.S. medical device executive. The headquarters are in Memphis, Tennessee with its research and development center in Netanya, Israel. Half of the company’s workforce is employed at the R&D center.
The company’s other product is the TriboFit hip system with a “Buffer” acetabular component which “snap-fits” either directly into the acetabulum or inserted into a HA metal shell which is “press-fit” into acetabulum.
Neither product is available in the U.S.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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