Focusing on biomedical tissue engineering restoration, what new "silk" road does reorientation medical treatment do?

How hot is the upstream of the medical device and aesthetic industry?

According to the "2021 Medical Aesthetic Industry Investment and Financing Report", there were 35 investment and financing incidents in the medical aesthetic field in 2021, and from the perspective of amount, the financing and acquisition amount of upstream products accounted for about 87.64% of the whole year. In August 2021, a consortium led by Kangqiao Capital announced the completion of a stake acquisition of Hugel, the largest medical aesthetic products company in South Korea, hugel, the first Korean manufacturer to obtain marketing authorization for botulinum toxin in China.

In the same year, Mindray Medical announced the acquisition of a 100% stake in Marine Peptide Biologics and its subsidiaries for a total price of 545 million euros, one of the four core raw material suppliers to the global IVD industry.

Upstream raw materials are gradually moving from behind the scenes to the front of the stage, and the new crown epidemic has affected the supply of imported raw materials, which has pushed domestic enterprises to break through the problem of raw material card neck.

Compound medical is one of the innovative material-based enterprises, with silk protein (also known as silk protein) raw materials as the core, research and development of absorbable interface screws, silk protein degradable absorption bone nails, 3D printing cartilage and other consumables products, as well as biological patches, skin wound repair film (also known as artificial skin) and other products.

Founded in 2020, behind the silk protein technology and the polymer materials research team of Fudan University, which has been precipitated for many years, has previously completed nearly 10 million yuan of angel round financing and is launching a Pre-A round of financing.

Dr. Fudan led the team,

Years of polymer material technology precipitation

Fudan University, the transformation of scientific research achievements, and the doctoral team are all labels attached to the "young" company of compound medical.

Silk protein is a natural polymer fibrin extracted from silk, which accounts for about 70%-80% of silk. Silk protein has good mechanical properties, biocompatibility, is not easy to trigger rejection reaction, and can be degraded in the human body and absorbed by the human body. In recent years, silk fibroin has been widely used in medical beauty, medical devices, daily chemicals and other fields.

Fudan University is undoubtedly the "processor" of silk, professors Shao Zhengzhong and Professor Chen Xin of the Department of Polymer Science lead the biological macromolecule research group, and have been committed to the basic research and application development of regenerated silk proteins for many years. In 2009, Professor Chen Xin's team successfully spun the regenerated silk protein fiber with excellent mechanical properties by wet spinning, and its fracture strength and fracture energy were higher than those of natural silk.

Compound Medical develops innovative products based on the polymer material technology that has been precipitated by professors at Fudan University for many years.

Mass production of silk protein powder,

Scientific research results were successfully industrialized

Previously, silk fibroin raw materials mostly stayed in the laboratory stage and could not be mass-produced.

The storage form of silk protein in the industry is mainly a solution, which is not only expensive to prepare, but also cannot be stored and transported for a long time, because silk protein is not resistant to shearing, and denaturation occurs during transportation, resulting in flocculent precipitation. After the flocculent precipitation of silk protein raw materials, it will be uneven, and some medical devices such as bone nails have very high requirements for the uniformity and consistency of raw materials, so they cannot be applied.

In 2019, Liu Yizhuo's team prepared the silk protein solution into a high molecular weight, high stability, high consistency, and controllable molecular weight distribution of silk fibroin powder through an innovative process. In this way, not only does the process cost be reduced, but the silk fibroin powder can also be stored for a longer period of time, and it will not be a problem within 2-3 years.

With the support of the polymer research team of Fudan University, the compound medical team has not only mastered the preparation technology of silk fibroin raw materials, but also can realize mass production and have the conditions for industrialization.

At present, Compound Medical has nearly 1500 square meters of production and R & D space. The company team has more than 30 core patents, including more than 20 invention patents and more than 10 utility model patents. Moreover, Fudan University has invested in Compound Medical, and Professor Shao Zhengzhong and Professor Chen Xin are also shareholders and consultants of Compound Medical, and the transformation of scientific research achievements has moved towards the stage of internal cooperation.

Among the management team led by Liu Yizhuo, there are not only experienced medical device industry "veterans", but also professionals who are proficient in industry research and management. In addition to the internal cadres, Compound Medical also has "foreign aid" from the outside, and the company cooperates with experts from well-known hospitals such as Zhongshan Hospital, Shanghai Ninth Hospital, Shanghai Sixth Hospital, and Changhai Hospital to jointly develop medical products.

With innovative silk protein technology as the core,

Layout of sports medicine, medical beauty two major plates

"We are a supplier of biomaterials and a medical company." Liu Yezhuo defines reversion medicine in this way.

As an innovative material supplier, Compound Medical can provide raw material products such as "soluble silk protein powder SFMAGIC" to downstream daily chemical, medical aesthetics, medical devices and other enterprises, and the price of raw materials for hyaluronic acid is benchmarked. In 2021, sales of the product reached more than 1 million. If you take the conventional path of medical device research and development, it may take two or three years for a company to achieve profitability. As an upstream raw material enterprise, Compound Medical has had the ability to "make blood" from the beginning of its establishment.

In the medical sector, compound medical treatment is based on silk protein raw materials, focusing on tissue repair engineering, and selecting two major markets of medical aesthetics and sports medicine.

Sports medicine is another popular track in the Red Sea of Orthopedics, and the Winter Olympics have added a fire to the development of sports medicine. According to statistics, the global sports medicine market size will exceed $9 billion in 2025, with an average annual growth rate of nearly 8%.

In the hot sports medicine market, in the choice of products, compound medical care pays attention to "promoting strengths and avoiding weaknesses". In terms of strength, silk protein is not as good as titanium alloys and magnesium alloys, but the biocompatibility of silk protein materials is good, degradable and the degradation products are safe. As a result, compound medical development can absorb non-load-bearing bone nails such as interface screws and artificial ligaments.

Compared with the current mainstream bone nail material alloy and polylactic acid, the mechanical strength of silk protein bone nails is closer to human bone, and it has better biocompatibility. At the same time, silk fibroin can be fluorescently imaged in the human body to facilitate postoperative follow-up of patients.

The research and development of artificial ligaments is based on the cooperation between Professor Chen Xin's team and Professor Chen Shiyi's team of Huashan Hospital, adding the functional substance lithium saponin to the regenerated silk protein fiber, and weaving the obtained regenerated silk protein/lithium soap soil hybrid fiber into artificial ligaments. Compared with the artificial ligament woven by natural degummed silk and pure regenerated silk protein fibers, its mechanical properties are closer to the rat's autologous anterior cruciate ligament, suitable for use as artificial ligament material.

In the medical aesthetic sector, Compound Medical is developing artificial prostheses, medical masks, surgical lines and other products. For a long time, silk fibroin has an unshakable position in the field of medical aesthetics, but it is mostly used for skin repair.

Liu Yezhuo proposed: "Our silk protein raw materials are easy to form a film, so we want to make biological dressings to treat burns and burns. Moreover, many students in our laboratory would wash their hands with silk protein after doing experiments, and for a long time found that boys' hands were more beautiful than those of female students. In terms of comprehensive performance, silk fibroin can replace collagen and hyaluronic acid. We decided to start with medical aesthetics and focus on tissue restoration projects. ”

As a biomaterials enterprise, the advantage of compound medical treatment is that it can accurately control the molecular weight of silk protein raw materials based on specific needs and modify the materials. For example, the R&D team can spin surgical threads by wet spinning and add growth factors to them to induce cell growth.

In general, the product layout of compound medical in the medical sector can be summarized as "point, line, surface, body", point-like raw material silk protein powder; linear artificial ligaments, surgical lines, etc.; facial hernia patches, artificial skin, etc.; posture includes silk protein bone nail embryo material, hydrogel material (skin filler gel and drug sustained release gel).

Among them, silk protein bone nails and artificial ligaments have completed animal experiments, and clinical trials will be carried out in the follow-up, and artificial skin for burn wound repair has been sent for type testing.

With the support of innovative silk protein raw material technology, backed by a strong scientific research team and expert consultant team, the industrial layout of compound medical treatment will be further expanded. How far such a scientific research transformation enterprise can go on the industrial road, we may as well wait.

Resources:

"Progress of Biological Macromolecule Research Group of Fudan University in Functionalization of Filament Fibers"——Polymer Materials

"2021 Medical Aesthetic Industry Investment and Financing Report" - Medical Aesthetic Research Institute

"Silk Spider Silk and Its Silk Protein" - Shao Zhengzhong