Soft Tissue Regeneration, Inc., (STR) of New Haven, CT, is a privately held medical device company that specializes in soft tissue repair in the sports medicine market. The company has developed and tested a new biodegradable scaffold that treats and regenerates injury to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) of the knee. The product, L-C Ligament, is considered a breakthrough in the treatment of ACL tears.
Connecticut Innovations (CI), a company seemingly responsible for the state’s technology investments and innovation development, announced that it has made a follow-on investment of $750,000 in STR through its Eli Whitney Fund. The investment will allow the company to improve its developments of L-C Ligament and ACL reconstruction.
“This investment will allow STR to continue its successful animal studies and begin European clinical trials in September 2012,” explained Joseph W. Reilly, president, chief executive officer and co-founder of STR. He further stated, “The team at CI has been invaluable in supporting STR’s activities as partners in developing our technologies in Connecticut.”
L-C Ligament is a patented and proprietary technology, exclusively licensed from Drexel University on a worldwide basis. It addresses many issues associated with traditional treatments for ACL injury, such as, autografts (tissue transplanted from one part of a patient’s body to another) and allografts (tissue transplanted from a cadaver). The product is a biocompatible and degradable synthetic braided scaffold that is surgically attached to the femur and tibia bones when replacing the patient’s torn ACL. The scaffold stabilizes the knee and facilitates the regeneration of ligament tissue – ultimately resulting in faster, improved healing. The company has been able to successfully complete regeneration of a native, natural and load-carrying ACL using a degradable synthetic polymeric construct.
STR is also leveraging its technology platform to develop a suite of complementary follow-on products that will facilitate the regrowth of other injured ligaments and tendons, including a recently developed biodegradable rotator cuff augmentation device.
With an estimated 800,000 ACL reconstruction surgeries performed annually around the world, and an active, aging population, there is a strong and growing market for STR’s products.
STR will be presenting its products and technologies at OneMedForum SF 2012 on January 9 – 12.