MADISON GROUP HEADS FUNDING FOR TISSUE REGENERATION FIRM
Capital Times
By Jeff Richgels
Tissue Regeneration Systems Inc., a medical device company developing bioactive implants for bone and soft tissue regeneration, on Thursday announced the close of a $2 million round of financing led by Madisonbased Venture Investors and joined by the founders of TRS.
The company is a spin-out of the universities of Michigan and Wisconsin, where TRS’ core proprietary technologies were developed over the past decade, and from which TRS has an exclusive option to commercialize.
TRS currently is developing its first generation products aimed at the $6 billion spine market using its bioresorbable scaffold and bioactive coatings technology platforms.
TRS said it has demonstrated in animals the ability to produce spinal implants that grow strong bone without leaving an artificial implant in the body. These improvements are expected to result in patients being able to return to their normal function sooner and with improved longterm patient outcomes.
Currently, permanent metallic and polymer implants are the standard in spinal fusion or disc replacement, “hardware-based approaches” with the “primary role to mechanically fix the tissue and mechanically replace vertebrae in the spine and fuse vertebrae together,” TRS co-founder Bill Murphy, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and pharmacology at the UW, said in a statement.
Many of these implants are packed with a patient’s own cells or materials that release a growth factor called bone morphogenetic protein, or BMP, that stimulates bone or cartilage formation in and around the implants.
In contrast, TRS implants ultimately will be resorbed and replaced with natural tissue, leaving no “hardware” in the body. This approach centers on porous biodegradable polymer implants that have controlled structural and mechanical properties, as well as integrated biologically
active components to promote new tissue formation.
“We are excited to have Venture Investors as a lead investor who shares our vision for this technology and its potential impact on patient care,” Dr. Frank La Marca, TRS co-founder and director of spine surgery, codirector of Spine Research Laboratory, and assistant professor at the University of Michigan, said in a statement. “With its history of successful investing with early-stage university technology, we believe Venture Investors brings a unique set of financial and medical device experience to TRS. We are fortunate to have such a strong partner so early in our company’s development.”
With the investment, Paul Weiss, a managing director with Venture Investors, will join TRS’ board of directors.
“We think TRS presents a very compelling investment opportunity,” Weiss said in a statement. “The company has its roots in two great research institutions and strategic partners for Venture Investors. TRS is leveraging the talents of both these institutions, which are fantastic resources for TRS.”
TRS founders also have received funding from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation at both the universities, which assisted in moving the basic research towards commercialization.
In addition to Hollister, La Marca and Murphy, the company’s cofounders include Stephen Feinberg, an associate professor at Michigan, and Jim Adox, TRS’ president and CEO, and a managing director at Venture Investors.
Formed in 1982, Venture Investors is a venture capital firm with $200 million under management and offices in both Madison and Ann Arbor, Mich. The firm invests in seed and early-stage life science and technology companies in the Midwest, with a primary focus on
opportunities that spin out of the region’s leading research universities.