Bioventus to Invest in Harbor MedTech to Redevelop Product for Rotator Cuff Patients

The business development team at Bioventus is constantly reviewing new opportunities for products that fit our corporate strategy.  During a comprehensive review of the sports medicine surgical orthobiologics market in 2017, they determined rotator cuff repair was an area of significant unmet need as surgeons want biologic technologies to improve healing of the bone-tendon interface. Late last week, Bioventus closed a deal with Irvine, California-based Harbor MedTech to redevelop a solution for rotator cuff patients.

We spoke with Jeff Welch and Sarah Caley of the Business Development team to learn more.

“Sports medicine remains the fastest growing segment of orthopedics, however, orthobiologics have not become very prevalent treatment options in the space,” said Jeff. “The opportunity to improve healing with patients in this segment is significant and we found Harbor MedTech and a product called PROcuff™ through our work on sports medicine orthobiologics and our collagen work on the BMP program.”

The PROcuff device was originally developed by Pegasus Biologics and subsequently Synovis Orthopedic and Woundcare Inc., but when Synovis was acquired by Baxter in 2011 this program was put on the shelf since Baxter did not have a focus in orthopedics.

“Harbor acquired the technology a couple of years ago, and now Bioventus has exclusively licensed the product and will partner with Harbor to bring it to the market,” said Sarah. “The beauty of PROcuff is it provides the mechanical strength of a standard suture/anchor repair and couples this with an integrated bioinductive collagen implant around the sutures to help induce new tendon tissue formation.”

“Unlike the other orthobiologics on the market for rotator cuff repair, PROcuff is implanted using only standard techniques and requires no additional surgical steps,” explains Sarah. “The goal is to improve bone-tendon healing and reduce re-tear rates, which remain high unmet needs for patients with rotator cuff injuries.”

Not unlike the 2018 investment in CartiHeal on Agili- C for the treatment of cartilage, Bioventus is making an investment in Harbor MedTech. However, rather than a straight equity investment as with CartiHeal, this deal also includes a license and development component.  We will work with Harbor to redevelop the product and implantation system, take it through 510k clearance with FDA, and then Bioventus will be the exclusive commercial partner to sell the product.

“Upon successful FDA approval, we would envision a limited launch primarily to collect clinical data and to develop full commercial strategy in the late 2021 to early 2022 time frame,” said Sarah.

Larry Boyd, Tom Brady, Laura McCrum, Whitney Meeks, Mason Robbins, Mark Schaefer, Scott Seaman, and Julia Taurus were key members of the due diligence team that helped evaluate the deal for Bioventus.  Now that the deal is signed, the next step will be to form a Joint Steering Committee to oversee the program – Larry Boyd, VP of Product Development and Laura McCrum, Senior Manager of R&D will be helping set up the Bioventus side of the collaboration.