With latest capital raise, Holland startup eyes clinical trials

With latest capital raise, Holland startup eyes clinical trials
The owner of the Palisades nuclear plant in Covert expects to close the facility in 2022. Economic developers and other local groups have started planning ahead to brace for the closure.

HOLLAND — With $600,000 in new capital, a West Michigan startup plans to fund an upcoming human clinical trial for its medical device technology.

Magnesium Development Co. LLC closed last month on the capital from existing investors, increasing to $1.6 million the total investment raised by the company since early last year.

A portfolio company of Holland-based Genesis Innovation Group LLC, Magnesium Development is developing a new surgical screw for orthopedic procedures to replace a torn ACL in knees. The screw uses an alloy material licensed from Livonia-based Nano Mag LLC.

Using elements found in daily multi-vitamins, the company designed the surgical screw to gradually dissolve and absorb into the body. If it’s commercialized, the screw would offer an alternative to those used today for ACL surgical grafts that are made from either a permanent metallic material or an absorbable polymer.

A 52-week pre-clinical trial in large animals returned “very favorable” results with “meaningful” absorption and new bone growth after a year, said Genesis Innovation CEO Rob Ball.

To start, the upcoming clinical trial would involve 20 patients at three undetermined sites that would likely be in the Midwest, Ball said. The trial will seek to prove the product’s safety and effectiveness.

Depending on the results of the clinical trial in humans, Magnesium Development may seek U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, he said.

“It really depends on the outcome of the data,” Ball said. “We’re confident things will go well, and at that point we’ll understand more about how aggressive we want to go in the various markets we have rights to.”

The product remains at least two years from the marketplace and commercial availability, he said, adding that Magnesium Development will likely need to raise additional capital to pursue commercialization.

Previous investors include Grand Rapids venture capital firm Wakestream Ventures, the Biosciences Research & Commercialization Center in Kalamazoo, and venture capital fund Novus Biotechnology Fund I in Kalamazoo.