Hyalex Orthopaedics, a medical device company advancing new products that feature HYALEX technology, a novel polymer system that is intended to mimic cartilage, today announced it raised additional funding in an expansion of its original Series A. New investors Strategic Healthcare Investment Partners (www.strategichealthvc.com) and DSM Venturing, the venture arm of Royal DSM (www.dsm.com), joined existing investors Canaan, Osage University Partners and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC Inc. (JJDC). Series A funding now totals $33MM, including new investors and additional funding from insiders.
"We are pleased by the enthusiastic response from leading investors and their shared vision to address the enormous patient problem of cartilage injury and disease," said President and CEO, Mira Sahney. "The funding will support the development of our synthetic cartilage technology platform, which we are eager to deliver to the clinic. Brad Vale will be a valuable partner on our board."
Millions of people suffer from debilitating pain and loss of mobility due to problems with hyaline cartilage – the surface that lines articulating joints, such as the knees, hips, shoulders, wrists and ankles. An estimated 21 million US adults have osteoarthritis. For example, hip osteoarthritis is the cause of 85 percent of the 500,000+ annual US hip replacement procedures. While total joint replacement is one option, patients are increasingly seeking less invasive alternatives. An ideal solution for osteoarthritis would address only the diseased portion of the joint. Regenerative medicine approaches have long offered hope for patients, but their success to date has been limited.
Hyalex is focused on improving the quality of life for these patients. The HYALEX synthetic cartilage technology is designed to maintain an extremely low wear profile, even at high loads. The company's approach aims to retain the natural joint anatomy and replace only the diseased portion of a joint.
According to Mike Hawkins, PhD, Hyalex board member and retired VP of Corporate Research at Zimmer, "HYALEX is a platform technology which has the potential to transform patient care by addressing a wide range of cartilage lesions and providing an upstream opportunity in the care continuum prior to conventional total joint replacement surgery."
"Mudit Jain and I founded Strategic Healthcare Investment Partners in 2018 to be able to invest in companies like Hyalex where high quality teams are pursuing big opportunities that can significantly improve patient quality of life and preserve future treatment options," Brad Vale commented.
About Hyalex Orthopaedics
Hyalex Orthopaedics is a Lexington, MA medical device company advancing new products that feature HYALEX™ materials technology, a polymer that is designed to mimic cartilage. Unlike other polymers, synthetic HYALEX material has the unique capability of maintaining low friction and low wear under the high loads encountered in human joints. Hyalex Orthopaedics' products are in the development stage and have not been approved for use in humans by any regulatory agency.
