What’s the commonality between VC funding and sheep? Both will help Solenic Medical on its path to treating prosthetic joint infection.
The UT Southwestern-affiliated medical device startup, which has most of its workforce in DFW, is fresh off new raises and is looking to raise more as it gears up for renewed animal trials on its way to testing its tech in human patients.
“Everything we thought we would prove in animal trials as well as in simulations have really been positive… and we’ve picked up speed because of that progress,” James Lancaster, CEO at Solenic, told NTX Inno.
Solenic was formed in early 2019 by Technology Venture Development, which provided the company with its initial seed funding, to further develop and commercialize a technology created by Dr. David Greenberg, who worked in UTSW’s infectious disease unit, and Dr. Rajiv Chopra, who worked in radiology for the institute. The two were looking for a solution to the wait-and-see antibiotic treatment approach, Lancaster said is standard practice in the industry. The resulting patent-pending technology, which received an FDA Breakthrough Device Designation last summer, uses a device similar to a blood pressure tester found in a drug store that uses a safe electromagnetic film to heat an implant, killing bacteria that might be growing on it.
“They thought, ‘Okay, we need to get a creative way to generate heat on implants and if MRIs have some risk associated with doing that, we just need to find a way to control it in a beneficial manner,’” Lancaster said. “Instead of an unintended risky side effect, it’s making it programmatic, purposeful and safe.”
Fresh off a stint at the MassChallenge Texas accelerator program in Houston (which was virtual), Solenic also raised an oversubscribed $610,000 round and landed a $1.3 million grant NIH Phase II grant to fund the trauma applications of the company’s tech.
While the pandemic slowed the progress of the company’s initial animal trials, which are taking place in sheep in a study that is being conducted with the University of Utah, Lancaster said Solenic is set to begin those trials soon. The company has also opened a new $2.5 million round to compliment the NIH grant.
The six-person team has been working largely remotely, meeting when necessary at UTSW and the surrounding neighborhood. Now that the company is in the process of building a handful of test devices, it is looking to plant physical roots. Lancaster said one location Solenic is eyeing is the Pegasus Park biotech development in Dallas. However, he noted that a large investor on the current round it’s raising could persuade it to look for offices elsewhere.
“Investors at this point have a lot of influence,” Lancaster said. “Because of COVID we haven’t established much of a physical presence or already grown roots with a large number of employees, so our lead investor in this next phase has the potential for more influence than they would already have at this stage.”
Lancaster said the Utah sheep study will likely take about 12 weeks, with months of compiling data and presenting findings to follow. With the FDA Breakthrough Device Designation helping fast track things, Lancaster said the company could be initializing human trials of its technology within the next 15 months.
As it continues towards that goal, Lancaster said Solenic’s team will likely double in size by the time it gets to human trials. He added that the company’s technology has the potential for use in treating infections in other parts of the body where a patient has received metallic implants.
“We feel like there’s wind at our sails, and getting ready to recontinue our sheep trials is a really, really exciting phase for us,” Lancaster said. “It definitely feels like momentum.”
