Last week, we posted the first in our series about the Startup Mentoring program that was organized by the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce South Central in association with the region of Emilia-Romagna.
Read about the program here.
One of the companies that took part in the 2019 campaign was GreenBone, an Italian startup located in the city Faenza (Ravenna province) where it develops bone substitutes fashioned out of organic material, a revolutionary new treatment for those suffering from congenital bone defects or traumatic bone injuries.
Their mission is to develop “nature-inspired solutions to cure severe bone defects” including “highly innovative bone substitute derived from wood” and “to generate biomimetic and reabsorbable bone graft suitable to address severe damage caused by trauma, non-union fractures or surgically induced bone defects.”
From the GreenBone website:
Patients with large bone damage greater than 1-2 cm have limited treatment options with transplant replacement bone from another part of the body as the far best solution. There is a high social and economic cost as patients often undergo multiple surgeries with long recovery times, and limb amputations are not uncommon. Our product is based on a unique, proprietary technology leading to a highly innovative bone substitute, suitable for the treatment of large bone damage, caused by traumatic injury, non-union or surgically induced bone defects in non-loaded and load-bearing bones. GreenBone is able to repair large bone defects, enabling patients a faster return to normal life with their own bone completely regenerated with an expected significant reduction oh health care and social costs. Future development will be in bone infection, bone cancer, spine fusion and other applications.
Here’s what the IACC mentors had to say about the company, one of the more promising startups that took part in the review and visit to Texas:
The technology seems to be very unique and innovative, with a strong, competitive pricing model. Opportunities exist in both the animal and medical marketplace. Market is not oversaturated with competition and initial testing in large and small animals appears to look very promising, noting that a large animal study in Israel resulted in 70% bone regeneration at 6-months post-implant and that initial rabbit implants demonstrated excellent bone formation at the implant site.
The team is very strong, capable and proven and they have raised over $13 million in two rounds of funding. Likely the strongest team with the broadest depth that we reviewed during our visit. Intellectual property protection exists with issuance in Europe, Russia, United States, China and other countries with additional filings being prosecuted.
Stay tuned for our next post on the participating startups and mentors.
