Project summary
Bone substitute material.
What is the issue?
Allegra Orthopaedics (“Allegra”) is commercialising a synthetic “load bearing” bone graft medical device, which in one product, presents highly sought after physical, mechanical and biocompatible properties which are currently not being met in the orthopaedics.
The medical device is a bio-ceramic scaffold with outstanding potential for supporting bone regeneration in load bearing applications. Preliminary studies indicate that it duplicates the mechanical strength, elasticity and bioactivity of bone grafts without the many recognised disadvantages of these current surgical practices; be they autograft (using patient’s own bone), allograft (same species’ bone), xenograft (different species’ bone) or metal implants.
The emergence of synthetic bone substitute materials, with and without biological bone growth factors has been increasing in orthopaedic surgery, however their use has been restricted to fillers or for use in non-load bearing applications.
What does the technology aim to do?
Allegra’s synthetic bone substitute, Sr-HT-Gahnite has the potential to be the first commercialised synthetic bone substitute platform of products suitable for building bone in large bone defects under load.
Allegra’s technology has been developed by Professor Hala Zreiqat and her team from the Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials Unit, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies, University of Sydney. Allegra has licensed the exclusive rights from the University of Sydney to the late stage patent applications which cover the formulation, production techniques and application of this breakthrough material.
Sr-HT-Gahnite presents a major advance in synthetic materials by combining a highly porous and interconnected scaffold with outstanding mechanical and bioactive properties for regenerating large bone defects under load. There is no perceived restriction for the product as it has the potential for use in non-load bearing as well as load bearing applications in all ages.
There are no synthetic alternatives to Sr-HTGahnite as all options are indicated for non-structurally integral uses. The current practice to address load bearing implants is through either metal only, with slow to no bone integration, or through autogenic and allogeneic implants with their inherent disadvantages.
Bone graft products are used in a wide range of orthopaedic surgery applications; fusing joints to prevent movement in the spine and/or extremities; repair injured bone/joints; accelerating repair of fractures with bone loss, or simply repair bone voids from surgery, trauma, removal of bone tumour, disease and/or infection.
The clinical relevance of Sr HT-Gahnite’s potential include reduced morbidity associated with a second surgical procedure, reduced infection risk, reduced medication and based on the pre-clinical evidence to date, there is the potential for more rapid bone growth leading to improved patient recovery rates.
Allegra is a publicly listed company on the ASX and its sales, design and manufacturing team is based in St Leonards at its 2,000m2 manufacturing facility.
Company contact
Tom Milicevic, Chief Executive Officer
tom.milicevic@allegraorthopaedics.com
www.allegraorthopaedics.com
+61 402 304 015