Medtech start-up Gelmetix, the developer of a first-in-class polymer treatment for chronic lower back pain, has closed a successful £5 million Series C equity financing round.

Following successful in-vivo and pre-clinical studies, the University of Manchester spin-out will now use the additional capital to fund its upcoming first-in-human (FIH) trial and preparing for the pivotal study. The Series C investment was led by Seneca Partners, while the £3 million Series B investment was led by Jonathan Milner.

The pilot study will progress the development of its minimally-invasive chronic back pain treatment, DXM, which restores the function to intervertebral discs to relieve pain. By rehydrating the core (nucleus pulposus) of damaged spinal discs, the novel DXM polymer gel therapy restores their load-bearing properties, delaying or preventing surgical intervention.

The French regulator, L’Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament (ANSM), has granted approval to Gelmetix to commence its first-in-human trial which will be performed by renowned spine surgeons Prof Jean-Charles Le Huec in Bordeaux, Prof Richard Assaker in Lille and Prof Patrick Tropiano in Marseille. Patient recruitment has been initiated in France and the study will also include several sites in Australia.

The funding round follows the recent appointment of Andy Weymann MD MBA as CEO. An orthopaedic surgeon, Andy brings industry-leading medical, product development and market development expertise to Gelmetix. He has 25 years of experience in global and executive positions in medical device and regenerative medicine organisations, and most recently served as Chief Medical Officer for Smith+Nephew. He also led AO Education, including the worldwide leading spine group, AOSpine, where he worked with spine surgeons for seven years.

Andy Weymann commented: “The burden of low back pain is extremely profound, accounting for the highest number of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) compared to any other condition or disease globally. I am very proud to lead such a great team developing treatment options which aim to bring hope of a long-lasting treatment to a huge group of patients facing enormous unmet need.”

Michael Fiore, Chairman of Gelmetix, commented: “Chronic back pain is an extremely prevalent health concern, known for generating huge loss of quality of life and productivity for those affected. Yet no treatment options exist between opiate-based pain management and its associated dependency risks, and invasive orthopaedic surgery for progressed cases. DXM aims to address this gap and break the vicious cycle of pain and disc degeneration, with more than 15 million patients standing to benefit initially.

“Following this latest funding round and approval from l’ANSM, Gelmetix is in a great position to progress evidence for DXM and move closer to meeting the unmet needs of chronic orthopaedic pain.”

About

Founded in 2012 at University of Manchester, Gelmetix is a UK medtech company focused on treating chronic lower back pain caused by the degeneration of the intervertebral discs. Gelmetix’s polymer gel technology also has the potential to be adapted and extended for other uses. The company’s mission is to free the world from the burden of chronic back pain and to enable individuals to move and live life without pain. In December 2020, Gelmetix was named “one of the most promising biotech start-ups in Europe” by EIT Health Catapult.

For more information about Gelmetix, visit www.gelmetix.com or contact: gelmetix@madano.co.uk / +44 0 7881 681 108

For all press and media enquiries please email us at media@gelmetix.com

For all press and media enquiries please email us at media@gelmetix.com

Gelmetix is happy to announce a clinical study has been approved by the French Medical Authorities to investigate the benefit of the injection of the DXM gel to help alleviating pain from Chronic Lower Back pain patients.

Pr Jean Charles Le Huec, from Bordeaux, France will drive the study as Principal Investigator.

Information can be obtained at Polyclinique Bordeaux Nord in France.

Stéphane BOURRET (Dept of Pr Jean Charles Le Huec)
Polyclinique Bordeaux Nord Aquitaine
Centre Vertebra
15 rue Claude Boucher
33300 Bordeaux
05 64 60 15 47 / 05 56 43 70 17

For all press and media enquiries please email us at media@gelmetix.com

• 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.

For all press and media enquiries please email us at media@gelmetix.com

We are proud to announce that our rebranding process is now complete. Gelexir
Healthcare, known for being a spin off of the University of Manchester and for its cutting edge R&D work on non-invasive treatments for Chronic Low Pain, officially becomes Gelmetix.

This rebranding process has been developed in line with our new multi-product strategy, focused on three large unmet medical needs: chronic low back pain, small joints osteoarthritis and knee osteoarthritis, and to enable Gelmetix to reach a wider audience, through a new website, videos and social media accounts, as we move closer to clinical trials and commercialisation.

Philippe Jenny, CEO of Gelmetix, stated that “We are very excited to share the new branding which is highlighting our multi biomimetic gel, multi application, multi product strategy. This branding will better identify us on the orthopaedic market while opening multiple new business opportunities.”

For all press and media enquiries please email us at media@gelmetix.com

For all press and media enquiries please email us at media@gelmetix.com

For all press and media enquiries please email us at media@gelmetix.com