Orthomimetics, new investment in orthopaedic medical device technology

Oxford Capital Partners invests in Orthomimetics

Oxford, UK, 6 December 2006

Oxford Capital Partners has announced its investment in OrthoMimetics Limited, the first technology spin-out from the Cambridge-MIT Institute. Oxford Capital Partners joins a syndicate of investors including Schroders Investment Management Ltd, Sloane Robinson Private Equity and a global investment bank in a Series A funding round totalling £5 million net of costs.

The Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI) is a joint venture between two world-class universities, located in Cambridge, England and Cambridge, Massachusetts, respectively. OrthoMimetics, based in Cambridge, UK, was founded to bring to market a revolutionary medical-device technology for the repair and regeneration of bone and soft-tissue damage, which was developed with the input of world-leading orthopaedic surgeons. A technology that reliably induces healing of soft-tissues addresses an important unmet need in orthopaedic medicine.

David Mott, Director of Oxford Capital Partners said: “We are a strong syndicate of investors, bringing together expertise in commercialising science and in harnessing the capital markets. This technology addresses an important unmet need in orthopaedics and we have ensured that OrthoMimetics will be well-capitalised from the start. We believe OrthoMimetics has the potential to make an important contribution to orthopaedic medicine and has already attracted the attention of major medical device companies.”

The funding will enable the company to advance the first two products based on its technology platform, for cartilage and ligament repair respectively, towards market approval. OrthoMimetics’ technology uses natural ingredients to form a collagen-based tissue regeneration scaffold, which is sponge-like in structure and looks like a small piece of Styrofoam. Its lead product, ChondroMimetic, will be used in the repair of articular cartilage damage in the knee. It is cut to shape and plugged into damaged joints by surgeons during key-hole surgery as an off-the-shelf product that can be easily integrated into existing clinical procedures, resulting in improved treatment outcomes.

Commenting on the financing, Dr Andrew Lynn, CEO of OrthoMimetics said: “Closure of this round provides OrthoMimetics with a sound financial basis from which to move forward swiftly with its development program. We are delighted to welcome such a high-quality consortium of investors and look forward to bringing to market a line of products that address the needs of clinicians and patients world-wide and adds value for our shareholders.”

Information for editors

Please contact:
Joanne Telford
Oxford Capital Partners
Tel: 01865 860 760
jtelford@oxcp.com
www.oxcp.com

About Oxford Capital Partners

Oxford Capital Partners is a science and technology venture capital firm with extensive experience in investing in and supporting businesses with high growth potential. Oxford Capital Partners looks for the best opportunities, backing exceptional entrepreneurs and investing across all stages of development, from start-up to IPO. Leveraging its extensive networks, Oxford Capital Partners assists portfolio companies in accessing international markets in Europe, the US, Middle East and Asia. Oxford Capital Partners is the manager of four Oxford Gateway Funds and oversees a portfolio of over 25 companies in a range of technology sectors, including ICT, clean technologies, life and physical sciences.

With experience of investing in healthcare companies, Oxford Capital Partners is focused on opportunities in the fields of medical devices, medical instruments, diagnostics and services to pharma companies. Recent investments include Oxford Genome Sciences, Sphere Medical, OrthoMimetics, G-Nostics and Veryan Medical.

Oxford Capital Partners was named Venture Capital House of the Year 2005 at the Unquote Awards.

About OrthoMimetics

Formed in 2005 as the first spin-out venture from the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI), OrthoMimetics (OM) is bringing to market a line of off-the-shelf medical-device products that the Company believes will improve the efficacy of first-line surgical procedures for the regenerative repair of defects in articular cartilage (ChondroMimetic), ligament (LigaMimetic), and tendon (TenoMimetic). Such defects are a major cause of the pathological degeneration that leads to joint replacement.

OrthoMimetics’ product pipeline is derived from a patent-protected technology platform that enables the scalable production of porous tissue-regeneration scaffolds that mimic the composition and structure of complex anatomical locations, including sites encompassing interfaces between hard and soft tissue types. These products work to support the body’s natural repair mechanisms and enable surgeons to improve the quality of tissue repair at the sites most relevant to orthopaedic surgery.

OM’s flagship product, ChondroMimetic, is an off-the-shelf medical-device product that works to improve the efficacy of existing first-line surgical procedures that recruit marrow-derived stem cells to the site of articular-cartilage injury. ChondroMimetic can be shaped with a scalpel, implanted without special tools, and bonds directly to the site of injury without sutures or glue. OrthoMimetics has successfully completed two preclinical trials of ChondroMimetic, the results from which will be published in peer-reviewed journals in 2007. A second product (LigaMimetic), addressing the market for donor-site repair during anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, will follow ChondroMimetic closely in OrthoMimetics’ development pipeline.

In addition to Dr. Andrew K. Lynn and Professor William Bonfield from the University of Cambridge,
OrthoMimetics’ founder group also includes: rising academic star and MIT-graduate Dr. Brendan A. Harley, currently based at Children’s Hospital in Boston and soon to be joining the faculty of the University of Illinois; regenerative-medicine pioneer Professor Ioannis V. Yannas of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and MIT Associate Provost and renowned materials-scientist Professor Lorna J. Gibson.

OrthoMimetics’ founder group also benefited from inputs from world-renowned surgeons, scientists and engineers at Harvard University and the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, Japan. Founding support for OrthoMimetics was provided by Cambridge Enterprise, a division of the University of Cambridge that provides a comprehensive knowledge and technology commercialisation service for University staff and students, and the MIT Technology Licensing Office. Incubation support for OrthoMimetics was provided by Cambridge Enterprise and the Cambridge-MIT Institute.

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