Medical Research Project Joins Two Firms

Medical device startup Active Implants Corp. of Memphis, TN plans to start testing its products at the InMotion Musculoskeletal Institute, a local independent research lab.

The agreement is an example of two new organizations helping each other, said Chris Przybyszewski, InMotion’s director of grants and communications. “It’s great that we’re kind of able to grow up together.”

InMotion incorporated in 2006, while Active Implants launched in 2004.

InMotion has already done work for big companies, including medical device maker Stryker Corp., but it could arguably have a bigger impact on smaller companies.

The lab has a staff of specialists and owns expensive machines that measure the levels of pulling, compression or bending that surgical implants or other materials can withstand before failing.

Supporters such as venture capitalist Robert Compton, whose family donated $1 million to the nonprofit lab this year, argue that research can yield many high-paying jobs.

Small companies can’t afford to create a lab like this on their own, acknowledged Rick Treharne, Active Implants’ vice president for orthopedic research. “It’s nice to have a place like InMotion that has those capabilities here in town,” he said.

Active Implants already has its own researchers in Israel and cooperates with universities around the nation.

In the short term, the company plans to use InMotion machines to test its first product, the TriboFit Buffer.

The TriboFit is a flexible cup implanted in the hip sockets of patients undergoing joint replacement surgery. It has already been approved in several countries–mostly in Europe–and the testing at InMotion will help support an application for approval in the United States, Treharne said.

Active Implants signed a general agreement with InMotion late last month, and future agreements will spell out financial terms for individual research projects.

The contract also addresses the question of intellectual property rights for any discoveries made while working jointly and provides for the parties involved to split the rights under certain circumstances.

The partnership between Active Implants and InMotion also reflects local leaders’ efforts to build up the orthopedic medical device sector, which makes products such as artificial hips and knees.

Memphis is already home to the world’s second-largest cluster of orthopedic companies, following Warsaw, IN.

SOURCE: commercialappeal.com