Tag Archives: spinal interbody fusion implants

Commercializing Titan Spine’s next generation spinal interbody fusion implant

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The July 22, 2015 Titan Spine news release on BusinessWire is mainly focused on the appointment of a senior nanotechnology specialist; I’m more interested in the mention of product commercialization (first mentioned in my Nov. 26, 2014 post) in the fourth quarter of 2015,

Titan Spine, a medical device surface technology company focused on developing innovative spinal interbody fusion implants, today announced the appointment of Jim Sevey as the Company’s Senior Nanotechnology Specialist. The appointment follows the Company’s receipt of 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its Endoskeleton® line of interbody fusion implants featuring its next generation nanoLOCKTM surface technology and precedes the Company’s full commercialization of the new line, planned for the fourth quarter of this year. The nanoLOCK™ surface represents the only FDA-cleared nanotechnology for spinal implant applications.

Mr. Sevey’s role will include leading the educational initiatives to further demonstrate and communicate the scientific evidence supporting the advantages of Titan Spine’s unique nanoLOCKTM surface technology. The surface features an increased amount of nano-scaled textures that result in the up-regulation of a greater amount of osteogenic and angiogenic growth factors critical for bone growth and fusion as compared to PEEK and the company’s current surface.1

Kevin Gemas, President of Titan Spine, commented, “As our body of science continues to grow, we identified the need to bring onboard someone of Jim’s caliber to educate the spinal surgeon community and our sales force on the science and associated benefits of our current and nanoLOCK™ proprietary surface technologies. With more than 22 years of experience with medical devices and biomaterials, Jim is the right person to lead these efforts. One of Jim’s initial tasks will be to clearly differentiate the science of our nanotechnology platform from those that claim to have nanotechnology but have not been cleared by the FDA to do so. We are proud to add Jim to our ever-growing scientific team.”

Barbara Boyan, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University, and lead author of several studies supporting Titan Spine surfaces, added, “The spine industry is beginning to recognize ‘nanotechnology’ as more than a marketing concept and now as a design approach that has the potential to improve spinal fusion results for patients. Titan Spine has been at the forefront of this charge for nearly a decade, conducting studies to evaluate and refine the benefits of nanotechnology for interbody fusions. I look forward to working closely with Jim to further these efforts.”

Before joining Titan Spine, Mr. Sevey held several positions at Synthes/Depuy Biomaterials, including most recently, Manager, Biomaterials Technical Specialist. In this role, he generated multidivisional sales of osteobiologic product lines by providing clinical and technical consulting, training, and education for surgeons, residents, operating room personnel, and sales consultants. Prior to Synthes/Depuy Biomaterials, Mr. Sevey was part of the founding team of Skeletal Kinetics, LLC, (Cupertino, CA) as Director of Marketing. Mr. Sevey holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Science from St. Mary’s College of California (Moraga, CA).

The full line of Endoskeleton® devices features Titan Spine’s proprietary implant surface technology, consisting of a unique combination of roughened topographies at the macro, micro, and cellular levels. This unique combination of surface topographies is designed to create an optimal host-bone response and actively participate in the fusion process by promoting the up-regulation of osteogenic and angiogenic factors necessary for bone growth, encouraging natural production of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), down-regulating inflammatory factors, and creating the potential for a faster and more robust fusion.2,3,4

About Titan Spine

Titan Spine, LLC is a surface technology company focused on the design and manufacture of interbody fusion devices for the spine. The company is committed to advancing the science of surface engineering to enhance the treatment of various pathologies of the spine that require fusion. Titan Spine, located in Mequon, Wisconsin and Laichingen, Germany, markets a full line of Endoskeleton® interbody devices featuring its proprietary textured surface in the U.S. and portions of Europe through its sales force and a network of independent distributors. To learn more, visit www.titanspine.com.

Titan Spine Study References:

1 Olivares-Navarrete, R., Hyzy, S. L., Berg, M. E., Schneider, J. M., Hotchkiss, K., Schwartz, Z., & Boyan, B. D. Osteoblast Lineage Cells Can Discriminate Microscale Topographic Features on Titanium–Aluminum–Vanadium Surfaces.Ann Biomed Eng. 2014; 1-11.

2 Olivares-Navarrete, R., Hyzy, S.L., Slosar, P.J., Schneider, J.M., Schwartz, Z., and Boyan, B.D. (2015). Implant materials generate different peri-implant inflammatory factors: PEEK promotes fibrosis and micro-textured titanium promotes osteogenic factors. Spine, Volume 40, Issue 6, 399–404.

3 Olivares-Navarrete, R., Gittens, R.A., Schneider, J.M., Hyzy, S.L., Haithcock, D.A., Ullrich, P.F., Schwartz, Z., Boyan, B.D. (2012). Osteoblasts exhibit a more differentiated phenotype and increased bone morphogenetic production on titanium alloy substrates than poly-ether-ether-ketone. The Spine Journal, 12, 265-272.

4 Olivares-Navarrete, R., Hyzy, S.L., Gittens, R.A., Schneider, J.M., Haithcock, D.A., Ullrich, P.F., Slosar, P. J., Schwartz, Z., Boyan, B.D. (2013). Rough titanium alloys regulate osteoblast production of angiogenic factors. The Spine Journal, 13, 1563-1570.

It’s unusual (and welcome) to see citations included with a business news release for a new medical device.

I didn’t think to pose the query in my last post but I wonder if Barbara Boyan has some sort of financial interest in Titan Spine? Her Virginia Commonwealth University faculty webpage suggests the answer is no,

Experience

  • Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in the College of Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Professor and Price Gilbert, Jr. Chair in Tissue Engineering in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University
  • Deputy Director of Research at Georgia Tech and at the Emory Center for the Engineering of Living Tissues at the Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
  • Co-founder of Osteobiologics, Inc.
  • Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of SpherIngenics, Inc.
  • Member, Board of Directors, ArthroCare Corporation and Carticept Medical, Inc.

Still, I wish there was a statement that spelled out Boyan’s relationship or lack of with Titan Spine.

US Food and Drug Administration approval for next generation spinal interbody fusion implant

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For the first time, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a nanotechnology-enabled interbody spinal fusion implant, according to a Nov. 12, 2014 news item on Azonano,

Titan Spine, a medical device surface technology company focused on developing innovative spinal interbody fusion implants, today announced that it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its Endoskeleton® line of interbody fusion implants featuring its next-generation nanoLOCKTM surface technology.

This clearance marks Titan’s line of Endoskeleton® spinal implants as the first FDA-approved interbody fusion devices to feature nanotechnology.

A Nov. 22, 2014 news item on Today’s Medical Developments.com provides more detail about the implants,

Titan’s new nanoLOCK surface technology enhances the company’s line of Endoskeleton devices with an increased amount of nano-scaled textures to up-regulate a statistically significant greater amount of the osteogenic and angiogenic growth factors that are critical for bone growth and fusion when compared to PEEK and the company’s current surface.

Barbara Boyan, Ph.D., dean of the School of Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University, and an investigator in various Titan Spine studies, said, “This new surface technology further enhances Titan’s current surface and is the result of extensive research in how to create a significantly greater amount of nano-scaled textures that we have shown to be important for the osteogenic response necessary for fusion. The nanoLOCK surface topography is far different than what is found on titanium-coated PEEK implants. In addition, the nanoLOCK surface is not created by applying a coating, but rather is formed by a reductive process of the titanium itself. This eliminates the potential for delamination, which is a concern for products with a PEEK-titanium interface. My team is proud to collaborate with Titan Spine to help develop such a differentiated technology that is truly designed to benefit both patients and surgeons.”

Titan’s nanoLOCK surface is a significant advancement of the company’s first-generation surface. The patented nanoLOCK manufacturing process creates additional textures at the critical nano level. However, there are no changes to the device indications for use, design, dimensions, or materials. Additionally, mechanical testing demonstrated that the strength of the company’s line of Endoskeletonimplants are unaffected by the new surface treatment.

Earlier this year Titan Spine announced the first surgery using one of its Endoskeleton implants. From a July 14, 2014 Titan Spine press release,

Titan Spine, a medical device surface technology company focused on developing innovative spinal interbody fusion implants, today announced that it has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to commercially release its Endoskeleton® TL system, a spinal fusion system utilizing a lateral approach. The Endoskeleton® TL represents the first lateral fusion device to feature surface technology that is designed to participate in the fusion process by creating an osteogenic response to the implant’s topography.

The Endoskeleton® TL device utilizes Titan’s proprietary roughened titanium surface technology which has been shown to upregulate the production of osteogenic and angiogenic factors that are critical for bone growth and fusion. In addition, the design of the TL device incorporates large windows and large internal volumes to allow for significant bone graft packing, clear CT and MRI imaging, desired bone graft loading, and the ability to pack additional bone graft material within the device following implantation. Members of the TL design team include Kade Huntsman, M.D., Orthopedic Spine Surgeon with the Salt Lake Orthopaedic Clinic in Salt Lake City, Utah; Andy Kranenburg, M.D., Co-Medical Director of the Providence Medford Medical Center Spine Institute in Medford, OR; Axel Reinhardt, M.D., Head of the Department of Spinal Surgery at the Specialized Orthopaedic Hospital in Potsdam, Germany; and Paul Slosar, M.D., Chief Medical Officer for Titan Spine.

Dr. Huntsman performed the first surgeries utilizing the Endoskeleton® TL on July 9th, 2014 at St. Mark’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. …

“The Endoskeleton® TL device is the first application of surface technology to the lateral approach,” commented Dr. Slosar. “The ability to orchestrate cellular behavior and promote bone growth in response to an interbody device has not been in the lateral surgeon’s armamentarium until now. The TL is the byproduct of a unique collaboration between academic biomaterial scientists, spine surgeons, and industry experts to create a truly differentiated lateral interbody device that is designed to benefit both patients and surgeons. With the addition of the TL device, Titan Spine now offers its surface technology and complete line of titanium devices for virtually all interbody fusion spine surgery procedures in the cervical and lumbar spine.”

The full line of Endoskeleton® devices features Titan Spine’s proprietary implant surface technology, consisting of a unique combination of roughened topographies at the macro, micro, and cellular levels. [emphasis mine] This combination of surface topographies is designed to create an optimal host-bone response and actively participate in the fusion process by promoting new bone growth, encouraging natural production of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP’s) and creating the potential for a faster and more robust fusion.

It would seem the implant used in the July 2014 surgery is not nanotechnology-enabled, which suggests nanoLOCK is a next-generation implant being marketed only a few months after the first generation was made available. Unfortunately, the Titan Spine website is still partially (‘surface technology’ tab) under construction so I was not able to find more details about the technology. In any event, that’s quite a development pace.