Invibio Partners with Paragon Medical to Scale Up PEEK-based Trauma Devices 52695

Invibio Biomaterial Solutions, a pioneer in the development of PEEK-based medical devices, has entered into a new collaboration with Paragon Medical to support the scale up of PEEK-Optima ultra-reinforced-composite fracture-fixation devices. The manufacturing agreement comes at a time when demand for the devices is exceeding initial expectations, according to Invibio. Paragon Medical said it has devoted additional space for this application at its manufacturing facility in Changzhou, China.

Invibio is part of Victrex plc, a supplier of high-performance polymers to a range of markets, which considers trauma to be a key “mega-program” with significant growth opportunities. Clinical data on PEEK-based trauma plates is encouraging, said Victrex CEO Jakob Sigurdsson. “Paragon Medical will help us support manufacturing scale up, and they bring an excellent reputation as one of the world’s premier medical contract manufacturers,” he said.

The recent opening of Invibio’s orthopedic product development center in Leeds, UK, also has the potential to accelerate development of new PEEK-Optima ultra-reinforced-composite fracture-fixation devices, the company added.

An increase in patient risk factors affecting fracture healing, such as diabetes, osteoporosis, and obesity, have made it more challenging for traditional titanium plates and nails to successfully heal patients, according to Victrex. The increased fatigue lifetime of plates made from PEEK-Optima and the ability to tailor their stiffness reduce patient risk, said the company.

The partnership with Paragon Medical, a medical device contract design manufacturer headquartered in Pierceton, IN, with a footprint in Europe and China, provides Invibio customers with additional world class medical composite manufacturing facilities to help serve growing customer demand for these products. “We are delighted to work with them to grow the composite trauma space and to make it easier for medical device companies to adopt this technology,” said Sigurdsson.