Grand Rapids, Mich., November 8th, 2021—HAPPE Spine, an emerging leader in the development of next generation orthopedic and spinal implants enabled by the HAPPE® material platform, announces that it has closed on a $3.35 million Series A capital raise. The oversubscribed funding was led by strategic investors from within the spine industry along with prominent and continuing investment by the Genesis Innovation Group’s cultivate(MD) Seed II Fund.
HAPPE’s orthopedic material platform, HydroxyApatite Porous PEek (HAPPE®), transforms polyetheretherketone (PEEK) from a hydrophobic, bioinert, and non-integrating material into a hydrophilic, bioactive, and osteointegrating material. As such, the HAPPE® material platform promises to improve clinical outcomes in spinal fusion by augmenting the radiolucency, bone-like mechanical properties, and subsidence resistance of conventional PEEK with designed cancellous porosity and bioactive surfaces for osteointegration.
Dr. Daniel Riew, MD, Professor of Orthopedics at Cornell and Columbia Universities, and a leading expert in cervical spine surgery said, “I look forward to utilizing HAPPE’s porous and bioactive PEEK, which has all the radiographic and clinical benefits of a synthetic cage while overcoming the negative aspects of an inert, hydrophobic PEEK device that cannot osteointegrate.”
Dr. Stephen Smith, MD, Neurosurgeon at the Beacon Health System and a co-inventor of the HAPPE technology added, “If you combine the best of allograft and PEEK, you get HAPPE (HydroxyApatite Porous PEek). HAPPE is both spine- and surgeon-friendly. It is biologically compatible, strong and radiographically informative.”
The HAPPE® material platform was originally invented at the University of Notre Dame under the direction of Dr. Ryan K. Roeder, PhD, Professor at the University and Founder of HAPPE Spine. The company has received three patents to date with additional patents pending. Dr. Roeder is a board member and Chief Technology Officer at HAPPE Spine.
Dr. Roeder stated, “I am humbled and honored by the strong response to our Series A capital raise, especially considering that we intentionally targeted spine industry leaders for the majority of this raise. We received robust buy-in from those who best understand the market opportunity for our biomaterial platform.”
The company will apply the Series A funding proceeds to launch an innovative interbody spinal fusion implant, with a focus on completing final regulatory testing and obtaining 510k approval, as well as scaling manufacturing operations and the production of implant and instrument inventory. Several new strategic leadership and staff positions within the company will also be added.
Dr. Roeder added, “We are proud of the work our team has done to prepare for this next stage. We have a versatile and innovative orthopaedic material platform that offers timely clinical solutions in interbody spinal fusion and additional opportunities for other orthopaedic applications we have in mind. We have developed manufacturing operations that are cost-effective, scalable and adaptable for innovative implant designs. We have assembled a preeminent clinical advisory board comprised of key opinion leaders from across the United States. We are extremely excited to move ahead with our commercialization plans.”
About HAPPE Spine:
HAPPE Spine LLC is a medical device development company that designs and commercializes innovative spinal implants utilizing the HAPPE orthopedic material platform of HydroxyApatite Porous PEek (HAPPE®). The patented HAPPE® material platform enables the advantages of monolithic implant porosity, which is currently only available in 3D-printed titanium, in PEEK for endplate-to-endplate osteointegration in interbody spinal fusion. HAPPE’s bone-like cancellous structure and bioactive surfaces facilitated robust bone in-growth and on-growth in preclinical testing. The HAPPETM material platform thus offers allograft-like qualities in a synthetic implant that can improve clinical outcomes in interbody spinal fusion by overcoming the problems of pseudoarthrosis, subsidence and imaging artifacts that limit current PEEK and titanium implants.
Learn more about HAPPE Spine and the HAPPE® material platform at happeortho.com.
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Jill Wachter