Gecko Biomedical, a Paris, France-based medical device company, has been granted a total of €6m in funding under the Investments for the Future programme (PIA).
The grant was awarded for the company’s project proposal entitled “PIAVE” [Projets Industriels d’Avenir (Promising Industrial Projects)], which is piloted by the General Secretariate for Investment (SGPI) and operated by Bpifrance.
This funding is a contribution towards the industrialization and development of innovative solutions in the area of tissue reconstruction, and the peripheral nerve in particular, without sutures, using 3D-printed micro-conducts secured by one of the company’s exclusive adhesives.
Led by Christophe Bancel, CEO, Gecko is a medical device company developing a platform of polymers allowing for tissue reconstruction. These synthetic polymers, which are biocompatible, bioresorbable, and activated by a specific type of light, can be applied onto internal tissues during surgical procedures (acting like an adhesive, a barrier or a filler product, depending on the type of surgery). They are also 3D-printable, allowing for the production of flexible, bioresorbable and very high-resolution implants.
To industrialize its innovative solutions in the area of tissue reconstruction, a 1,150 m2 manufacturing site, powered by 100% green electricity, is currently under construction in Roncq (in the Hauts-de-France Region) and will feature four clean rooms (totalling 300 m2) and an analytical laboratory extending over 140 m2.
The company’s technology is based on research and intellectual property from the laboratories of Professor Robert Langer (MIT) and Professor Jeffrey M. Karp (Brigham and Women’s Hospital), who co-founded the company in 2013, alongside Bancel and Bernard Gilly from the iBionext Network.
FinSMEs
24/01/2018