Intellirod Spine™ (formerly OrthoData Inc.) was founded by renowned spine surgeon Rolando M. Puno, M.D. and professors from the University of Louisville. The company is developing a wireless implantable microelectronic spinal rod strain sensor. This innovative strain monitoring system will allow spine surgeons to objectively assess the strain on implanted spinal fusion rods.The company raised series A financing in 2008 and 2009 for product development and testing iterations resulting in a pre-IDE meeting with the FDA in 2010. The company raised a B1 round of funding in March of 2013 including institutional investors Jumpstart and the City of Akron, Ohio.
Intellirod Spine™ closed on Ohio Third Frontier debt financing and additional equity financing totaling $1.9M in May 2014 completing the series B1 round. This capital has added key management and targets the completion of technical development, conducting an animal study and preparation for human trials.The company more recently completed two additional B rounds of equity financing in excess of $2M. The company is poised to reach its first approval milestones and has its sights set on commercialization of its first product, the LOADPRO intra-operative rod strain sensor.
With over 450,000 lumbar spinal fusions in the US in 2016, the number of patients with continuing post-operative complications is estimated as high as 30% of these cases. In a significant number of these patients, determining the cause of ongoing pain involves assessing the quality and degree of fusion. This is the key to determining the next course of treatment. The current post-operative aggregate cost of this subset of patients is over $1B per year in the US including lost worker productivity.The Intellirod™ LOADPRO and ACCUVISTA sensing systems will provide objective intraoperative and postoperative data complementing surgeons’ tactile feel and radiographic data currently collected from flexion extension x-rays and costly high radiation CT scans. http://www.intellirodspine.com
About the Spinal Market
The Spinal implants and spinal devices market, by technology, includes spinal fusion and fixation, vertebral compression fracture treatment, and motion preservation/non-fusion technologies. On the basis of products, the global spinal implants and spinal devices market is divided into six major segments, namely, thoracic fusion and lumbar fusion devices, cervical fusion devices, spine biologics, vertebral compression fracture treatment devices, motion preservation/non-fusion treatment devices, and spine bone stimulators. Bases on the type of surgery, the global spinal implants and spinal devices market is divided into two segments, namely, open surgery and minimally invasive surgery. The spinal decompression devices market, by type of procedure, covers discectomy, laminotomy/laminectomy, foraminotomy/foraminectomy, facetectomy, and corpectomy procedures.The Spinal market is expected to reach USD 15.73 Billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 5.6% from 2015 to 2020. As of 2015, North America is estimated to hold the largest share of the global spinal implants and spinal devices market, followed by Europe. However, the Asia-Pacific market is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 8.2% from 2015 to 2020. A number of factors, including rising healthcare expenditure in developing nations owing to growing income levels, increasing government funding, presence of a large patient population, rising obesity cases, and growing awareness on the newly developed spine treatment techniques and devices are propelling the growth of the spinal implants and spinal devices market in the Asia-Pacific region. However, challenges associated with this market, such as scarcity of expertise and trained healthcare workers and lack of adequate patient awareness restricts the market growth in this region.Source: marketsandmarkets.com