Charles Sternberg, Associate Editor09.06.22
Dr. Kingsley R. Chin has formed NANISX LLC, a new spine company which will be divided into two ASC divisions: NANISX Pain, focused on interventional pain management, and NANISX Ortho-Neuro.
KICVentures Group recently merged its holdings in three of its portfolio companies into NANISX that are already gaining market adoption in outpatient spine surgery: NanoFUSE Biologics, InSpan and Sacrix
“We are dedicated to support the rise in outpatient spine surgeries by training and equipping Interventional Pain Management doctors, Orthopedic surgeons and Neurosurgeons treating degenerative spinal stenosis and sacroiliac joint (SIJ) pain in ASCs for many years,” says Chin.
In addition to being CEO and founder of the KICVentures Group, Chin is a board-certified professor of orthopedic spine surgeon who in 2007 moved his medical practice as the chief of Spine Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania to South Florida where he began his focus on ASC-based spine surgeries.
Over the years, he has been expanding research publications, intellectual property and developing LES technologies and teaching physicians techniques to practice in ASCs. It is this firsthand experience that has allowed him to see the demand being generated by physician owners of ASCs who want direct access to technologies that are easy to use, appropriately priced for the ASC to make a profit, and are effective with proven outcomes and low risks of complications.
NANISX LLC will have three leading outpatient spine technologies as a platform to offer the ASC:
1. Sacrix is seeing growing demand as more ASC surgeries are being done to treat sacroiliac joint pain that can go unnoticed in 22% of low back pain sufferers as the source of back and radicular pain. Over 43% of lumbar instrumented spine fusions with pedicle screws will cause adjacent segment pain in the sacroiliac joint requiring surgery.
Sacrix pioneered a patented platform of multi-threaded screws and fluted anti-rotational implants including a novel lateral-oblique percutaneous technique that can be done quickly with almost no bleeding through a 1.5 cm incision. Sacrix is experiencing robust demand since the recent announcement that a new T code X034T will be assigned to posterior intra-articular sacroiliac techniques in 2023. This would affect companies and devices doing posterior sacroiliac fusions that can no longer use the CPT 27279 code reserved for lateral fusion transfixing the sacroiliac joint that mainly Sacrix and SI-Bone do among few others.
Many IPM doctors who do sacroiliac joint fusions have made the switch to Sacrix and are finding that Sacrix is also an improvement in providing greater fixation, easier technique and improved outcomes with no documented failures or complications.
2. InSpan’s midline mini-open percutaneous interlaminar-interspinous device (IPD) is seeing growing adoption for treating spinal stenosis and for spinal fusion without the need for pedicle screws or interbody cages. Imagine doing a lumbar spine fusion quickly with no need for expensive navigation or robots to place pedicle screws with much less risk of complications, immediate pain relief and stabilization.
3. NanoFUSE Biologics is the world’s only FDA-approved fiber-based synthetic bioactive glass combined with demineralized bone matrix (DBM) for regenerative bone formation promoting fusion and bone healing. NanoFUSE when combined with an aqueous body fluid forms a 3D porous calcium hydroxyapatite layer for bone formation in as early as 24 hours.
NANISX believes it will take focused dedication to the ASC model to have sustainable adoption and growth but the timing is now. In contrast, the large spine manufacturers are investing more in hospitals anticipating growth with more expensive capital equipment like robots and navigation to place pedicle screws hoping that they can convince ASCs to adopt the same expensive hospital technologies and equipment. Large spine device manufacturers provide devices to hospitals as a commodity and sign exclusive agreements that exclude competition and innovation from smaller companies limiting doctors to use their devices.
“KICVentures Group sees a different model for the ASC where the doctors are owners, and therefore empowered to make choices to use what is the most innovative and provide effective outcomes at a price that leaves them a profit by streamlining operational overhead,” says CFO and co-founder, Aditya Humad.
The NANISX portfolio of technologies is expected grow rapidly with the expected addition of a new chief executive officer (CEO) to be announced soon. The company has also initiated the listing process to prepare for an IPO with a New York-based advisory firm which includes the search for the right governance and establishing processes to scale and be ready within 12 to 18 months.
KICVentures Group recently merged its holdings in three of its portfolio companies into NANISX that are already gaining market adoption in outpatient spine surgery: NanoFUSE Biologics, InSpan and Sacrix
“We are dedicated to support the rise in outpatient spine surgeries by training and equipping Interventional Pain Management doctors, Orthopedic surgeons and Neurosurgeons treating degenerative spinal stenosis and sacroiliac joint (SIJ) pain in ASCs for many years,” says Chin.
In addition to being CEO and founder of the KICVentures Group, Chin is a board-certified professor of orthopedic spine surgeon who in 2007 moved his medical practice as the chief of Spine Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania to South Florida where he began his focus on ASC-based spine surgeries.
Over the years, he has been expanding research publications, intellectual property and developing LES technologies and teaching physicians techniques to practice in ASCs. It is this firsthand experience that has allowed him to see the demand being generated by physician owners of ASCs who want direct access to technologies that are easy to use, appropriately priced for the ASC to make a profit, and are effective with proven outcomes and low risks of complications.
NANISX LLC will have three leading outpatient spine technologies as a platform to offer the ASC:
1. Sacrix is seeing growing demand as more ASC surgeries are being done to treat sacroiliac joint pain that can go unnoticed in 22% of low back pain sufferers as the source of back and radicular pain. Over 43% of lumbar instrumented spine fusions with pedicle screws will cause adjacent segment pain in the sacroiliac joint requiring surgery.
Sacrix pioneered a patented platform of multi-threaded screws and fluted anti-rotational implants including a novel lateral-oblique percutaneous technique that can be done quickly with almost no bleeding through a 1.5 cm incision. Sacrix is experiencing robust demand since the recent announcement that a new T code X034T will be assigned to posterior intra-articular sacroiliac techniques in 2023. This would affect companies and devices doing posterior sacroiliac fusions that can no longer use the CPT 27279 code reserved for lateral fusion transfixing the sacroiliac joint that mainly Sacrix and SI-Bone do among few others.
Many IPM doctors who do sacroiliac joint fusions have made the switch to Sacrix and are finding that Sacrix is also an improvement in providing greater fixation, easier technique and improved outcomes with no documented failures or complications.
2. InSpan’s midline mini-open percutaneous interlaminar-interspinous device (IPD) is seeing growing adoption for treating spinal stenosis and for spinal fusion without the need for pedicle screws or interbody cages. Imagine doing a lumbar spine fusion quickly with no need for expensive navigation or robots to place pedicle screws with much less risk of complications, immediate pain relief and stabilization.
3. NanoFUSE Biologics is the world’s only FDA-approved fiber-based synthetic bioactive glass combined with demineralized bone matrix (DBM) for regenerative bone formation promoting fusion and bone healing. NanoFUSE when combined with an aqueous body fluid forms a 3D porous calcium hydroxyapatite layer for bone formation in as early as 24 hours.
NANISX believes it will take focused dedication to the ASC model to have sustainable adoption and growth but the timing is now. In contrast, the large spine manufacturers are investing more in hospitals anticipating growth with more expensive capital equipment like robots and navigation to place pedicle screws hoping that they can convince ASCs to adopt the same expensive hospital technologies and equipment. Large spine device manufacturers provide devices to hospitals as a commodity and sign exclusive agreements that exclude competition and innovation from smaller companies limiting doctors to use their devices.
“KICVentures Group sees a different model for the ASC where the doctors are owners, and therefore empowered to make choices to use what is the most innovative and provide effective outcomes at a price that leaves them a profit by streamlining operational overhead,” says CFO and co-founder, Aditya Humad.
The NANISX portfolio of technologies is expected grow rapidly with the expected addition of a new chief executive officer (CEO) to be announced soon. The company has also initiated the listing process to prepare for an IPO with a New York-based advisory firm which includes the search for the right governance and establishing processes to scale and be ready within 12 to 18 months.
