It is one of those rare small companies on the cusp of being able to play a key role globally – and Australia will play a crucial role in that journey. Osteopore is on an exciting path, we have commercial traction, and our novel medical tech platform is proven and has numerous apps for bone regrowth and hopefully in the near future for cartilage, tendons and ligaments.
Our solutions provide ‘superior outcomes’ for patients worldwide to harness the body’s own regenerative capabilities. I surprised many when they realised that the first decade of my career was spent as an accountant in a Big Four firm and CFO in listed companies.
I’ve been told many times that I break the mould of the typical chartered accountant and spent the next 10 years taking on senior operational, business development and roles, before discovering Osteopore. I’m passionate about, accelerating this company’s growth.
What is the market foothold of Osteopore?
Osteopore was the first company to successfully develop and commercialise 3D-printed bioresorbable implants for surgical use, reducing post-surgery complications compared to permanent implants. The Australian and Singapore-based company’s implants are used with existing surgical procedures to assist and enhance natural stages of bone healing.
We have a clear strategy and execution plan to continue the necessarily arduous route of accumulating clinical data and then gaining wider regulatory access for our products globally.
We are building a global distributor network and gaining recognition and interest from hospitals and surgeons which leads to revenues. We are working to ensure we remain at the forefront of with constant R&D collaborating with top industry and academic institutions. Beyond growing organically, we are also looking at inorganic growth opportunistically.
And despite the restrictions in dealing with the pandemic, the firm has continued to make headway and is in a hurry to catch up on opportunities from the period. We listed on the ASX in 2019 and generated revenue, in 2020 before COVID we generated sales in excess of $1.5m across many countries which proves the commercial viability of our technology.
This is vital as generally many small MedTech fims are unproven commercially. The team has been hard at work during the pandemic and now we are seeing momentum coming back and are excited to get back to the pre-COVID upward trend of increasing interest in our offering.
What is the market reach of Osteopore?
Osteopore’s R&D and manufacturing plant is in Singapore, and the company’s current focus has been on the US and Europe markets. It has made recent sales into markets Spain and Columbia, China, and India – but the company was listed in Australia for good reason.
Australia is an obvious destination because the Australian medical community is very dynamic and forward-looking with many potentially exciting collaborative opportunities. Osteopore achieved a world first in 2020 in Australia, with an implant used in skull replacement surgery at Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital involving a motorcycle accident patient.
We were rewarded with working with Brisbane-based Dr Michael Wagels, a world-recognised plastic and reconstructive surgeon who has conducted three world-first operations using Osteopore’s patient-specific implants. This was ground-breaking in the regenerative medicine space and had very heart-warming and life-changing effects on patients in return.
What is so unique about Osteopore’s offering?
Osteopore has been granted TGA listing for three types of craniofacial implants meaning local patients will finally get access to the same revolutionary technology used in more than 60,000 surgeries across Asia, the US and Europe. Australian doctors are increasingly looking for products that work with the body’s natural regenerative capabilities and replacing like with like rather than having to rely on artificial replacement parts or some bone grafts.
The two main benefits of Osteopore’s implants are:
- Bioresorbable – in 18-24 months they disintegrate into carbon dioxide and water with no foreign material left in the body, leaving strong and healthy bone, significantly minimising infection rates, pain and reducing the need for further surgery.
- Regenerative – bone implants successfully enable new bone to form within the scaffold, with only negligible 0.01% complications post-surgery.
Osteopore had numerous IP, trade secrets and other intangible assets underpinning its technology platform. We create our scaffolds with our very own 3D printers and only with this printing technology are we able to create the microstructures that are required for the scaffold – there is no other production process that allows you to create such scaffolding.
I was extremely grateful for the highly skilled, dynamic and complementary directors and management across the globe helping ensure Osteopore’s technology, applications, regulatory access, and distribution and hospital networks were leading to more sales.
Our revenue got back on track in the last quarter of 2021; we sponsored inventive human clinical trials in Australia, refreshed our board of directors, on a tech front entered into a collaboration enabling artificial intelligence to accelerate the design and accuracy of implants, and were granted a patent in China creating more opportunities in the region.
In December last year, Osteopore secured the lead role in clinical-industrial partnership with National Dental Centre of Singapore and A*STAR research institute through a A$19m project, to develop the next generation jaw implant to access the A$1.26b dental bone graft and membrane market. 2022-2023 is shaping up to be an exciting year for our company.
Mark Leong is Osteopore’s new executive chairman, having worked for the company in a non-executive role since August 2021. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Chartered Accountant of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA) and Member of the Singapore Institute of Directors (SID).
