Alto Capital’s SPV will invest in Cohesys, an early-stage private medtech startup building BoneTape, an innovative new technology for use in surgery on fractured bones.
Offering Details
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About the Investment
Meet BoneTape, Cohesys’ flagship product
BoneTape is a resorbable, flexible fixation system that is being built to provide an orthopedic surgery tool with the intended purpose of being able to realign and stabilize bone fragments and fixate fractures, bone grafts, and bone substitutes. It consists of a thin polymeric backing that contains a novel polymer designed to anchor to bone and is being developed to potentially reduce surgical time, reoperation rates, and trauma associated with fracture repair surgery.
Cohesys
Founded in 2018 and based in Toronto, Canada, Cohesys is a medical device company currently focused on bringing its flagship product BoneTape to the market.
BoneTape is an innovative tape-like material that can be used as an stabilization solution in surgeries necessary to repair traumatic bone injury. With it, Cohesys aims to disrupt a longstanding, legacy surgical-repair industry dependent on highly invasive rigid plates and screws.
Rooted in science and dedicated to helping people recover more effectively from traumatic injury, Cohesys is a venture built by a diverse team including clinicians, material scientists, researchers, engineers, and entrepreneurs.
The business sits at the intersection of scientific advancement and the potential for positive, real-world impact on everyday people.
Founders
Early Team
Alto Capital
The surgical-repair industry for fractured bones appears ripe for disruption
The process of repairing fractured bones with surgical solutions is complex, and often considered highly invasive. Existing bone quality issues such as osteoporosis can further complicate procedures designed to heal bones injured by trauma, and postoperative pain and implanted device failure are not uncommon, with occurrence rates of hardware removal reportedly sitting between 10% and 40%.
Metal plates to fix bone fractures have been used for well more than a century. In fact, the first instance was in 1895, and despite numerous shortfalls of the old solution, improvement of the sector’s technology has seemed curiously slow. New, different materials (like metals, ceramics, and polymers) have been introduced, yet existing fixation systems still require drilling, plates, and screws. New research into the materials and methods of the space is also relatively limited.
Cohesys aims to change the trajectory of surgical bone repair with biodegradable, conformable, and resorbable material. BoneTape is intended to be safer and easier to use, and will ideally have a lower risk of long-term complications because it naturally dissolves on its own and is not permanently present like many competitor devices.
BoneTape targets a substantial market opportunity, estimated at $30 billion
The target customer — surgeons in trauma centers — are not price sensitive and prioritize ease of use and patient outcomes. Additionally, they tend to be clustered in hospitals and trauma centers, presenting possible concentration benefits for BoneTape sales efforts.
Cohesys plans to initially target the craniomaxillofacial (facial reconstruction, craniomaxillofacial fixation [CMF]) fracture-surgery market. With 536,500 addressable procedures per year at an average procedural payment value of $16,604, the total procedural TAM for CMF comes out to $8.8 billion, of which $2.6 billion goes to implantable devices like BoneTape.
Cohesys has found early traction in fundraising and development
Regulatory Pathway
Cohesys is preparing an FDA application for human use of BoneTape through the 510(k) pathway, which does not require clinical data.
The FDA may request clinical trial data despite it not being required. For this reason, the team at Cohesys is running a clinical trial at Sunnybrook Hospital and working with a top regulatory consultant who has supported over 100 approved devices in similar indications. The data from the Sunnybrook clinical trial will be used by Cohesys to support initial marketing and sales.**
Simpler, cost-efficient surgeries
BoneTape aims to drive a paradigm shift in orthopedics that could provide surgeons a new way of providing critical care to patients.
The Cohesys team intends for BoneTape to revolutionize orthopedic repair procedures by:
Newfound prioritization of patients
For patients, BoneTape is an obvious win: a less-invasive alternative to complex and clunky device implementation with an easier, more comfortable healing journey. Unlike titanium plates and screws, BoneTape dissolves within 18 months.
For medical professionals, BoneTape not only simplifies surgeries, but also leads to reduced distribution costs and a more efficient workflow. That’s because BoneTape is currently designed to be cut to shape during surgical procedures, reducing the need for extensive instrument kits containing hundreds of individual plates, screws, drill bits and tools.**
For a minimum investment of $10,000 into the Alto Capital Cohesys SPV, individual accredited investors can back Cohesys in its earliest days as it navigates clinical trials and early customer adoption to be in on the ground floor of an inspiring medtech company poised to enter a period of rapid growth.**
**Investing in early-stage medtech companies involves significant risks, including potential delays in regulatory approvals, market adoption challenges, and the possibility of financial loss. Cohesys is preparing an FDA application for BoneTape, but there is no guarantee of approval. While Cohesys is in the process of early tests for the application of BoneTape, individual results may vary, and long-term outcomes are still uncertain. Investors should carefully consider these risks before investing. individual results may vary, and long-term outcomes are still being studied.
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