Orthox Secures Multiple Awards Totalling £469k from Technology Strategy Board to Fast Track Product Pipeline
Oxford, UK – 29 July 2010 – Orthox Limited, the tissue repair company using silk technology, today announced two monetary awards worth £469k from the Technology Strategy Board to help drive its preclinical and clinical programmes.
Orthox is developing a range of novel orthopaedic products for the repair of knee cartilage. The Company’s core technology is Spidrex® Cartilage – a remarkable silk biomaterial combining the resilience, high strength and biocompatibility found in spider silk. The silk technology is the result of a decade of research by Oxford University scientists, Professor Fritz Vollrath and Dr David Knight.
The awards are part of the £21.5 million Regenerative Medicine programme managed by the government-funded Technology Strategy Board. The Technology Strategy Board is investing up to £4m in fast-track collaborative research and development projects (preclinical or clinical) in the area of regenerative medicine therapeutics.
Orthox is the lead partner of two collaborations with Northwick Park Institute for Medical Research, which is headed up by Dr Paul Sibbons. The funding from the Technology Strategy Board is for two projects as follows:
1) £264k to fast track Orthox’s FibroFix™ meniscal repair product through to regulatory approval and to enable the programme to enter the clinical phase.
2) £205k to develop Orthox’s articular cartilage and bone pipeline products, and validate them in the preclinical phase.
These awards boost Orthox’s funding position further. In January 2009 Orthox announced the award of a prestigious Wellcome Trust Translation Award worth over £1.6 million to fund the development of the FibroFix™ meniscal repair programme, and in October 2009 Orthox was awarded an £82k feasibility project from the Technology Strategy Board to initiate development of the Spidrex® articular cartilage pipeline.
Commenting on the announcement, Nick Skaer, CEO of Orthox said,
“We are delighted to have been granted these awards by the Technology Strategy Board for our innovative technology and this is further validation of our work. We believe our meniscal repair and articular cartilage programmes are unique with respect to our silk technology and we continue to seek funding to bring these programmes through development to the market. If successful, we could potentially provide a ground breaking solution to knee cartilage issues faced by people leading longer, more active lives.”
For further information, please contact:
Orthox Ltd – Tel: +44 (0) 1235 232 111 / +44 (0) 7779 64 65 73
Nick Skaer, CEO – Email: n.skaer@orthox.co.uk
Martin Hunt, Chairman – Web: www.orthox.co.uk
PR to Orthox – Tel: +44 7767 66 00 40
Melanie Miotte – Email: m.miotte@btinternet.com
Technology Strategy Board – Tel: 07824 599644
Nick Sheppard – Email: Nick.Sheppard@tsb.gov.uk
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