flowbone and researchers from EPFL and ETHZ get a CHF 1.2 million Innosuisse grant to decrease the incidence of osteoporotic hip fractures

19.05.2022 11:17, Guillaume Tinsel

Researchers from EPFL, ETHZ- Swiss Federal Institutes from respectively Lausanne and Zürich - and flowbone SA, a privately held MedTech spin-off from EPFL specialized in bone regeneration, met to kick off a 2-year project to advance the development of a new solution to decrease the incidence of osteoporotic hip fractures. The CHF 1.2 million project is supported by a grant from the Swiss Innovation Agency Innosuisse.

Osteoporosis leads to devastating hip fractures
Osteoporosis is a degenerative disease that weakens bones, making them more likely to break. Every year in the US and Europe only, 6 million people with osteoporosis become at high risk of imminent fracture. Standard drug therapies have limited effectiveness for the hips, leading to 1.2 million devastating hip fractures in the US and Europe every year. Within one year following surgical repair of those fractures, 22% of the patients die and 33% end up dependent or in a nursing home. The related costs sum up to USD 52 billion for the US and European healthcare systems. Therefore, a simple, fast-acting, and hip-targeted anti-fracture solution is urgently needed.

flowbone’s regenerative medical device allows a rapid increase of local bone density
To overcome the limitations of current drug therapies, flowbone engineered a breakthrough nano-based biomaterial for bone regeneration. It is composed of hydrogel and a very low percentage of nanoparticles made of the mineral that is also naturally present in bone. This unique formulation has a low viscosity which allows for the preservation of existing bone during injection and to fill the irregular voids in the osteoporotic bone. The material is supplied in a ready-to-use syringe and injected percutaneously into the bone in a simple minimally invasive procedure under local anesthesia and radiological guidance.
Once in place, the hydrogel resorbs while the nanoparticles act as seeds for biomineralization. This leads to the formation of an in situ scaffold stimulating new bone formation. The new bone bridges the voids in the existing bone structure, leading to a significant local increase in bone density and microstructure. Both are known indicators of bone strength and fracture resistance.
“We named this unique mechanism of action local bone seeding,” says Dr. Ulrike Kettenberger, CTO and co-founder of flowbone. She adds: ”The bone-seeding biomaterial fully integrates with the normal bone formation and resorption cycle and leaves no residues.”
Local bone seeding can be used alone or in combination with drug therapies and can be repeated whenever needed.

The natural mode of action of local bone seeding requires a patient body’s response to reach its strengthening effect. Contrarily to implants or hardening biomaterials such as bone cements, the increase of bone resistance to fractures cannot be determined with cadaver tests. The only way to assess the efficacy of local bone seeding before doing actual clinical trials is through numerical simulations based on real-world patients’ data. The goals of this Innosuisse project consist of running such simulations to predict the impact of local bone seeding on fracture risk reduction by simulating sideways falls. In addition, simulations of the injection process itself will help to optimize the protocol for future case studies and clinical trials in patients.

flowbone won Venture Kick stage 3 in 2020, participated in Venture Leaders Medtech in 2021, and was ranked at the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Awards the same year.