AxioMed Spine Completes New Round of Financing

AxioMed Spine Corporation, based in Garfield Heights, Ohio, has completed a new round of financing to the tune of $3.6 million. The company is focused on the development of products designed to restore spinal function in patients with degenerative spine disease by advancing the standard of care beyond fusion and first-generation total disc replacement. Since AxioMed was founded in 2001, the company has secured more than $37 million in private equity financing from venture capitalists.

Axiomed’s Freedom lumbar and cervical discs have received CE mark approval for distribution in the European Union. The company is pursuing U.S. regulatory approval for the technology—the lumbar disc is currently in clinical trials. The cervical disc is a viscoelastic one-piece total disc replacement featuring a polymer core. The lumbar disc received a CE mark in 2009, while the cervical disc received its CE mark in 2012.

According to AxioMed, existing disc implants have been based on ball-and-socket structure modeled off hip and knee replacement prostheses. The company’s goal for its Freedom disc is to provide what ball-and-socket implants cannot, namely three-dimensional motion, dynamic stiffness, load-sharing capability, and proper maintenance of the lordotic curve (the inward curvature of the spine).

Axiomed President and CEO Patrick McBrayer is the former head of Osteotech Inc., an orthopedic biologics company.