Kimberley pearl shells can repair bones claims biomedical group
LOS ANGELES: A company gaining international attention for its use of pig collagen to repair human nerves has upped its stake in a local start-up developing bone products from oyster shells on the state’s Kimberley coast.
Perth-based Orthocell on Friday announced it had increased its stake in Marine Biomedical to almost 12 per cent, securing the first right of refusal for the distribution of the company’s bone regeneration technology named PearlBone.
Marine Biomedical is seeking regulatory approval in the United States for the PearlBone product, which uses crushed pearl shells to develop a biologically regenerative substance that can be implanted directly into broken or damaged human bone.
The shells used in the technology are a byproduct from WA’s pearl farming industry in Broome.
The shiny inner nacre, or mother-of-pearl, is ground into a substance used to create a rock-like substance that can act as a scaffold for human bone to rebuild around after orthopaedic, trauma or reconstructive surgeries.
Orthocell chairman John Van Der Wielen said the ability to distribute the PearlBone product meant Orthocell would soon be able to sell the three founding elements of trauma repair: nerve and tendon, via their own collagen wrap technology, Remplir, and now a wider bone product.
“It’s the same market in a sense, and all of the surgeons dealing with trauma will tell you that when you’ve got a gunshot injury or a major trauma from a car accident, you need bone, nerve and tendon,” Van Der Wielen said.
Marine Biomedical chairman Mal Di Giulio said Orthocell’s investment was a validation of its technology and an opportunity to leverage the company’s existing distribution networks across the world.
Orthocell uses collagen from pigs to manufacture tiny collagen patches that can bind nerves back together without the need for surgical stitching and restore function to once-paralysed limbs.
The company has attracted investment from the US and Hong Kong, as well as local high-net-worth individuals.
Billionaire Kerry Stokes, footballer Chris Judd, iiNet founder Michael Malone, and Mineral Resources founder Chris Ellison are among the company’s investors.
It raised an additional $30 million late last year, having secured regulatory approvals in Australia, the US, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong.
America’s high rate of gun and knife injuries has led to expectations the demand for the producer will be higher in the US, where the number of nerve injuries is 30 times greater than in Australia.
Van Der Wielen also chairs Western Australia’s Future Health Research and Innovation Fund, a WA government wealth fund seeded with $1.4 billion in mining royalties in 2020 from the state’s massive iron ore sector.
He said an emergence of biomedical technologies was quickly developing in the mining state.
“We’ve had cracking results, there’s a load of Western Australian-based biotechs, some in the infancy, some getting further – we have amazing innovation in WA,” he said.
In its ASX statement on Friday, Orthocell said it had cash reserves of almost $50 million and was positioned to continue commercial expansion.