FDA Awards $1.6M Grant to SpineForm

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has awarded a $1.6 million grant to Cincinnatt, Ohio-based SpineForm.

The 9-year-old company was the only medical device maker among the 15 grant recipients; the bulk of the roughly $13.4 million in FDA grants went to hospital research programs.

SpineForm executives plan to use the funding to finance the research and development of its HemiBridge System, a series of devices implanted into a patient’s spine to correct scoliosis (spine curvature) without the need for a brace or extensive future spinal fusion surgeries, according to CincyTech. It is available for commercial sale in Europe but limited to investigational use in the United States.

SpineForm was founded in 2004 to develop and market the HemiBridge System, which was invented by Eric Wall, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon and director of sports medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and Donita Byliski-Austrow, Ph.D., director of biomechanics research at Chincinnati Children’s Hospital. It is a portfolio company of CincyTech, an investment firm focused on southwest Ohio startups.

SpineForm has received funding from both the FDA, Ohio Third Frontier and the National Science Foundation. It also has garnered financial support from Cincinnati Children’s Tomorrow Fund, CincyTech, Queen City Angels, the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati and several private investors.