• 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.

Manchester, United Kingdom and Guimarães, Portugal – October 19th, 2018 – Gelmetix has established a partnership with Stemmatters, a Portuguese regenerative medicine company. 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.”

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 orthopaedic conditions. The company is focused on the development of a non-surgical procedure for treatment of degenerative disc disease. Further gel based products currently in development are designed to improve patients suffering from osteoarthritis in small joints and knee joint by simple non-surgical procedures.

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