Stemmatters and Gelmetix sign co-development agreement

(Guimarães, Portugal and Manchester, United Kingdom - October 19, 2018)

• Stemmatters and Gelmetix have established an agreement to develop an innovative hydrogel based device for the treatment of cartilage lesions.

• The partnership established focuses on the pre-clinical development of the new device towards clinical studies in human patients and subsequent market authorization.

• The new medical device aims to ensure a significant advance in the treatment of cartilage lesions, by seeking to provide a high treatment efficacy through a minimally invasive procedure and reduced patient discomfort.

Stemmatters, a Portuguese regenerative medicine company, has established a partnership with the British company of therapeutic biomaterials Gelmetix. This partnership aims to develop an innovative minimally invasive medical device for the treatment of acute cartilage lesions, based on a new hydrogel designed and developed by Stemmatters. Through this partnership, companies will collaborate and leverage joint resources and skills for the pre-clinical development of the medical device prior to clinical studies in man and subsequent market approval.

Cartilage is an essential tissue for the correct functioning of joints in the human body. It is estimated that 60% of patients with joint pain suffer from acute cartilage lesions. These injuries originate mostly from traumas related to physical activity or sports practice and when inadequately treated can lead to progressive degeneration of the cartilage and total loss of joint function, with serious consequences in terms of loss of mobility and decrease in quality of life. Due to the increase in the life expectancy, it is estimated a significant increase in the prevalence of these lesions for the coming years. The new medical device aims to ensure a significant advance in the treatment of cartilage lesions, aiming at improving effectiveness and reducing cost of treatment, through a minimally invasive procedure with reduced patient discomfort.

“As a company seeking to address the growing burden of cartilage lesions and provide better treatment options to patients, Stemmatters team is very enthusiastic and committed to collaborate with Gelmetix in bringing this product closer to clinical reality.” said Rui Sousa, chairman and CEO of Stemmatters. “Gelmetix brings significant know-how and experience to the realization of our product vision. Our joint resources will bring significant progress to the development of our cartilage repair product”.

“Gelmetix is very excited by the potential of this technology and the synergies of this partnership” quoted Dr Philippe Jenny, CEO of Gelmetix Ltd “Stemmatters provides a product with strong scientific and market reasoning. This partnership is a great opportunity to develop a product fitting our portfolio and to address an increasingly common problem in active patients by the most appropriate technology.”

Stemmatters, SA (Guimarães, Portugal) is a Portuguese biotechnology company developing biomaterials and devices for regenerative medicine. The company has designed a novel injectable medical device to be used in the repair of articular cartilage lesions which aims to provide significant advantages as compared to current methods of treatment. This device aims to promote in situ regeneration of hyaline-like cartilage tissue, being implanted by a minimally invasive and simple procedure aimed at reducing hospitalization time and cost of treatment.
About Gelmetix

Gelmetix Limited (Manchester, United Kingdom) is medical device manufacturer, originated from the University of Manchester as a therapeutic biomaterial company, Gelmetix designs novel gel based approaches to a variety of debilitating orthopedic conditions. The company is focused on the development of a non-surgical procedure for treatment of degenerative disc disease. It is based on the injection of a gel into the nucleus pulposus during early stages of degeneration, in order to relieve pain and stop the degeneration process of the intervertebral disc. Further gel based products currently in development are designed to improve patients suffering from osteoarthritis in small joints by a simple non-surgical procedure.