TissueGen Awarded New Patent for Self-Expanding Medical Device

TissueGen Inc., developer of biodegradable polymer technology for implantable drug delivery across a wide variety of therapeutic applications, has been issued a U.S. patent for a self-expanding medical device capable of drug elusion within the body.

TissueGen claims its patented product meets the market’s need for devices that are self-expanding and can stay in place when implanted in tubular organs of the human body. Such medical devices may act as vascular stents, or can hold or anchor other devices such as filters or indwelling catheters.  

TissueGen’s latest patent applies to the invention of a helical coil comprising multiple reversing sense helical coil units that are capable of drug elution and provide all the benefits of a small closed-cell stent design while maintaining high flexibility, high radial force and crush resistance, the company notes. The resulting device is well-suited for the peripheral vascular system, but can really benefit most applications where a device is required to maintain position within any tubular anatomical structure.

Definitive testing supports the strength of TissueGen’s helical coil-containing device compared to other stents, even bare metal stents, according to a company news release. This self-expanding device corrects the issues of previous generations of coil-based stents, which have typically had limited clinical success.  

“Helical coil stents have long been a good idea in theory but were prone to migrating in the artery and causing complications; in some scenarios the end-user patient could even end up with a narrower artery than they started with,” said Dr. Kevin Nelson, chief scientific officer of TissueGen. “TissueGen’s device has a design which allows it to be self-anchoring and prevents tissue prolapse. Another improvement over existing products is that ours reduces the time and effort required by the surgeon to implant the device.”  

The latest patent is one of many intellectual property assets the company currently holds. Notably, TissueGen has multiple patents in support of its unique extrusion process at room temperature, which enables delivery of the widest selection of drugs and biologically-based entities ever possible directly to targeted internal sites via its Elute biodegradable drug-loaded fibers. Tailored design allows tunable release profiles and a unique biomaterial format for delivery of a broad range of therapeutics from small pharmaceuticals to protein-class drugs such as enzymes, growth factors, and even viral particles.

Based in Dallas, Texas, TissueGen focuses in extruding biodegradable polymer fibers with broad drug delivery capabilities. The company has a portfolio of drug delivery technologies with the capability to incorporate and elute therapeutics and standard pharmaceuticals in hydrophobic polymeric fibers or tubes for sustained therapeutic release.