New Ortho Healthcare Venture Fund

Two organizations have come together to form a new healthcare venture fund dedicated to orthopedic healthcare technology solutions.

The Orizon Fund has been newly founded by Orizon LLC and the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF). Its focus will go towards solutions created by OREF-funded research. The fund will provide a broad range of financial support to these efforts.

Funding will be used to enable the creation and operation of new companies dedicated to bringing new solutions to market. The capital may also be used, per the press release, for “providing support in general management, product development, regulatory and quality assurance practices, and healthcare reimbursement guidance where appropriate.”

In the press release, OREF President Joshua J. Jacobs, M.D. commented, “The partnership with Orizon LLC represents an exciting new way for OREF to achieve its mission of supporting investigators and funding innovative musculoskeletal research. OREF’s goal is to improve patient care by funding research into novel solutions to current clinical problems. By assisting OREF-funded researchers in getting those solutions to market and into the hands of orthopaedic surgeons in an effective and efficient fashion, we can further leverage the generous support provided by OREF donors to improve clinical practice.”

Dr. Jacobs continued, “Supporting innovative research is at the core of OREF’s mission, and assisting our grantees in taking the next step with their research advancements is a natural extension of our mission.”

The funding process will include a selection and evaluation process. Per the press release, the selection process will focus on “innovation that addresses unmet clinical needs and provides features distinguished in the marketplace.”

Orizon LLC will select individuals who have completed OREF research grants to advance through a competitive process. If a solution is selected, a new standalone subsidiary of Orizon LLC will be created with dedicated resources to drive product development plans for a commercially viable solution.

OTW spoke with Lee Grossman, OREF’s chief executive officer, about the fund. Grossman told us, “OREF’s mission is to improve patient care by funding research that drives improvements in clinical practice. With the launch of Orizon, OREF can further support these improvements by connecting our grant recipients with the resources needed to move innovative solutions out of the lab and into the hands of orthopaedic surgeons.”

He also noted, “while the Orizon Accelerator program is launching to a subset of OREF grant recipients with completed grants, all OREF-funded investigators are invited to attend a Town Hall information session to learn more about the program.”

OREF representatives clarified that “The Orizon partnership is designed to assist investigators in commercializing solutions resulting from OREF-funded research. Initially, a subset of OREF grant recipients whose grants have been completed will be invited to learn more about Orizon and to apply to participate in the Orizon Accelerator program. The first cohort of participants will be selected from among these investigators. Future cohorts will be selected from a broader pool of OREF-funded investigators. All OREF grant recipients are welcome to attend a virtual Town Hall meeting to learn more about the program. More information is available on the Orizon website.”

Orizon hopes to select the first cohort of recipients “by mid-July with the goal of announcing funding decisions by mid-September.”