Pacira Pharmaceuticals (NSDQ:PCRX) plans to invest up to $25 million in privately-held surgical reconstruction company Tela Bio, the company said today.
Pennsylvania-based Tela Bio has a portfolio of reinforced bioscaffold products, called OviTex, which combine biologic and synthetic materials in an embroidered implant that allows fluid and cells to move freely through the device. The implants are designed for ventral hernia repair and abdominal wall reconstruction.
““We are thrilled with this Pacira investment given its complementary commercial experience and success in driving innovation within the surgical community,” Tela Bio’s president & CEO Antony Koblish said in prepared remarks. “This investment will provide us with additional resources to scale-up our clinical and commercial efforts for hernia repair and abdominal wall reconstruction. We also look forward to developing new OviTex products purposely designed for additional soft tissue procedures such as breast reconstruction.”
Pacira is slated to make an initial investment of $15 million in Tela Bio, with the potential to invest $10 million more contingent upon performance milestones. Pacira has also earned a seat on the company’s board of directors, according to the agreement.
“We believe the OviTex platform is a highly innovative and differentiated solution that is positioned to emerge as a leading surgical mesh that synergistically blends the strength of a synthetic with the regenerative properties of a biologic,” Pacira’s chairman & CEO Dave Stack added. “Given the strong commercial overlap in soft tissue procedures between our two organizations, we look forward to identifying ways to further collaborate with Tela Bio over time.”
In March, Pacira said that the Phase IV study of its Exparel bupivacaine liposome injection in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty met its co-primary endpoints for postsurgical pain and opioid reduction.
Patients who received Exparel achieved a statistically significant reduction in pain scores compared to their counterparts in the control group. The researchers also concluded that those who were treated with Exparel used significantly fewer opioids than patients who did not in the 2 days following surgery.
This relativaly small infusion of cash may help Tela Bio continue operations for the near future. High risk investment.