Surgery without internal sutures, the key to a better recovery for patients: this is the challenge launched by Decium, a French start-up that develops a gel to repair human tissue.
The company’s production site was recently established in Roncq, in the north of France. In the quality control laboratory, technicians check the products at regular intervals. For the demonstration, a viscous polymer-based gel is deposited on the paper: a short blue filament, photo-activated, “solidifies” within thirty seconds.
You have to imagine the same effect on the human body, for example, to allow severed nerves to regenerate and reattach, without resorting to stitches: the gel acts like a glue, absorbing naturally within a few months. The aim is to use this polymer to repair tissue while limiting the potential trauma associated with surgery.
Decium was launched in 2013 as Gecko Biomedical after its president and co-founder, Christoph Panzel, learned about the work of researchers in pediatric cardiac surgery at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. An engineer by training, Biotech Moderna’s founding brother was a starting point that he wanted to extend into more therapeutic areas.
This new material is currently being developed for three applications: repair of peripheral nerves, treatment of ventral hernias to repair augmentation implants, replacement of currently used screws and treatment of suture leakage in cardiac surgery.
“For a doctor, this allows quick and stable results. We see a quick recovery in animals, which needs to be confirmed in humans,” explains Christoph Panzel.
But who says new meaning says new processes. Everything had to be done, the leader recalled. “We have to build everything.”
A filtration and purification machine, in particular, had to be adapted from an existing machine, an assembly of tanks and furnaces occupying one of the laboratories on the factory floor.
One liter of polymer is produced in several hours, representing nearly 2,000 syringes. A machine that uses supercritical CO2 under high pressure – which allows it to gel without being a liquid, solid or vapor – costs a paltry one million euros.
After years of research and several fundraisings, including 50 million euros last year, Decium will begin several human clinical studies this year in the United States, France and Australia.
The company is not the only one interested in using polymers in medicine. Because these ingredients have interesting properties for health.
“A polymer is really just a series of molecules (monomers) held together by chemical bonds,” explains AFP Sophie Guillaume, director of research at the Institute of Chemical Sciences in Rennes.
While some are found in their natural state, such as starches or proteins, others are man-made synthetics.
“Polymers have many applications in the medical field for the release of active substances, tissue reconstruction, prosthetics, diagnostics, from the moment they are biocompatible”, Ms. Guillaume underlines.
“With this technology, I think a non-nerve surgeon can get just as good results as a specialist,” said Dr. Dominic Power, a surgeon specializing in peripheral nerve repair who is testing Decium’s product.
“This will reduce operating times, costs for hospitals and risks for patients,” said Britton, who is also a lecturer at the University of Birmingham. If all goes well, Decium surgical adhesives could be on sale in the U.S. by the end of 2023, Christoph Panzel believes.
