Think shock absorbers for the human body. Moximed could help active and young patients who have osteoarthritis prolong the amount of time before total knee replacement.
The Heyward, Calif.-based company’s Kinespring Knee Implant System is a medical device that absorbs part of the load put on the knee, without changing anatomy. The device is positioned alongside natural knee structures. As the company website says, “As the knee extends, the spring compresses and absorbs joint overload. As the knee flexes, the spring relaxes and becomes passive.” By doing this, it should reduce pain.
It’s designed to be a first option for surgeons because the procedure is reversible.
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This is a platform technology (you guessed it), and Moximed is at work to apply the unloading concept to other joints, President and CEO Kevin Sidow said. The company will begin seeking capital for a Series C round over the next few months.
Sidow said Kinespring technology disrupts the market because it preserves anatomy, serves patients too young or too active for join altering procedures and can put off the need for joint-altering procedures for a number of years.
And, while he has a bias, he should know: he’s spent his whole career in orthopedics, at one time even as the Worldwide President of DePuy Inc. When he was at St. Francis Medical Technologies (which was acquired by Kyphon, which was acquired by Medtronic), the team there was also working on orthopedics projects that wouldn’t “burn bridges” for the patient, Sidow said. This mentality and being right on the pulse of trends in orthopedics are what attracted him to startup Moximed.
“Every trend is for preserving patients’ anatomy, putting off for as long as possible total knee replacement and of course, allowing patients to have a high quality of living standard. That’s what attracted me in the beginning, and that’s what is attracting me now,” he said.
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The Kinespring Knee Implant System is CE marked in Europe, and has a fully-staffed office in Zurich, Switzerland. It recently completed a pilot study in the United States. It hopes to expand its feasibility study and start clinical trials in the US to prepare the product for PMA. Though it’s difficult to say, Sidow said the company hopes to have the product commercialized in America in two years.
