Payoff Pitch Playoff Debuting at AAOS 2024

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) brands its annual meeting as “five days of powerful education, innovation, and collaboration,” but this year’s event promises to focus a bit more on innovation.

Besides the latest technology on display by the thousands of registered exhibitors, the 2024 Annual Meeting (Feb. 12-16, San Francisco) is featuring its first-ever competition for novel orthopedic products. Presented by MCRA LLC and AAOS, OrthoPitch is billed as an “opportunity for companies to demonstrate new products and solutions” to industry experts.

“Being the foundational sponsor of OrthoPitch allows MCRA to be at the forefront of innovation to continue our mission of providing patients access to novel orthopedic medical devices,” MCRA president David Lown said last summer in announcing the competition. “We are excited to work with AAOS on the first-ever OrthoPitch event at AAOS 2024 and bring awareness to new companies in the industry.”

Those new companies hail from a 40-plus applicant pool that braved two assessment cycles from the AAOS Devices, Biologics, and Technology Committee and a diverse expert panel. The candidates were evaluated based on their respective technology’s ease to market, reimbursement potential, market impact, and commercialization.

OrthoPitch architects winnowed the second-round applicants to four finalists that will pitch their wares before a live audience and three-judge panel consisting of Dave McGurl, MCRA vice president of Orthopedic Regulatory Affairs and former FDA acting branch chief of Orthopedics/senior Premarket Lead Reviewer; orthopedic surgeon Daniel B.F. Saris, M.D., Ph.D., 1st professor of Regenerative Medicine at Mayo Clinic; and veteran entrepreneur Eric Major, who built and sold two medical device companies. The winner—chosen by the panel and audience members on Feb. 13—may receive exposure to top seed and early-stage investors, physicians, strategists, and industry members; a complimentary booth at next year’s Annual Meeting; a complimentary MCRA-conducted regulatory or reimbursement assessment; a 20-minute Innovation Theater time slot at the AAOS 2025 Annual Meeting; a complimentary AAOS webinar; and one-on-one coordinated meetings with at least nine medtech investors.

The four finalists competing for such spoils are Biomedical Bonding AB, CytexOrtho, nView Medical, and Solenic Medical.

Biomedical Bonding is a Swedish company spun out from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm that is developing a resin-based medical adhesive and composite platform technology for hard tissue restorations. Its Bonevolent AdhFix product reportedly has high load-bearing properties, can adapt to any bone shape, and is extremely compatible with soft tissue, thereby minimizing the adverse effects found with traditional metal plates. The product is best suited to repair shattered fractures in the hand, distal radius, ankle, face (maxillofacial), and skull (craniotomy).

Last summer, Biomedical Bonding received a U.S. patent for its primer composition that may be applied to tissue to increase bond strength between the tissue and a patch, filler, or supporting material. The primer comprises a dithiol component and an allyl-containing component together with a photo initiator.

CytexOrtho is a Durham, N.C.-based pre-clinical stage firm that has developed patented technologies used for creating implants that integrate into the cartilage defect of an injured joint, restoring anatomic structure and function while preserving natural bone, according to an NIH profile. The implants are made of polycaprolactone (PCL), a material with a well-established regulatory history of biocompatibility and safety, supported by data from PCL-based products currently on the market.

Preclinical studies in an animal osteoarthritis model show that CytexOrtho implants restore damaged cartilage and enable 100% of test subjects to return to pain-free joint function. By contrast, the control group animals evidenced disease progression and never regained joint function.

Salt Lake City-headquartered nView Medical is eyeing victory with nView s1, its all-in-one imaging, navigation, and AI-planning solution.The system has been used by more than 50 spine, general orthopedic, and neurosurgeons in nine U.S. hospitals with prominent scoliosis spine programs. The company marked nView s1’s 250th surgical case last October. 

The nView s1 system provides real-time 3D imaging throughout surgery, thus enabling clinicians to meticulously plan, guide, and execute their procedures via a pioneering low-dose 3D imaging capability.

Solenic Medical Inc., based in Addison, Texas, is developing a non-invasive treatment for infected metallic implants. Using technology invented at the University of Texas Southwestern, the VIC Technology Venture Development portfolio company is leveraging the unique properties of alternating magnetic fields (AMF) generated by external coils to reduce, and possibly eradicate, the biofilm on the surface of metallic implants. Solenic’s AMF technology has been designated a Breakthrough Device by the FDA.