Biorez Inc., a start-up dedicated to advancing tendon and ligament healing, has announced that its BioBrace Implant has received the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) ACE Award for “Accelerating the Cutting Edge.” The AOSSM ACE Award was presented at the annual AOSSM meeting, July 7-11, 2021, held in conjunction with the Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA) in Nashville, Tennessee.
Recently FDA-cleared, the BioBrace Implant was created to reinforce a variety of soft tissue repairs. The implant is a biocomposite scaffold, combining both synthetic or biologic materials. (Traditional implants use either synthetic or biologic materials, not both.) BioBrace Implant technology utilizes a highly porous collagen matrix which is additionally reinforced with bioresorbable microfilaments.
The AOSSM-AANA meeting is known as one of the most prestigious annual orthosurgical conventions. Roughly 1,300 surgeons attend, and 100 companies exhibit annually. The ACE Award is presented yearly at the gathering after a rigorous, several months long review process. Judges score ortho technology based on creativity, innovation, long term clinical applicability, potential clinical impact, improvement of standard of care, and effectiveness and/or benefits v. harm.
Craig Bennett, M.D., Co-Founder and Medical Director at LifeBridge Health Sports Medicine Institute in Maryland was one of the ACE award panel judges. “The judges saw a lot of new and innovative products, and the BioBrace represented an intriguing and desirable combination of strength and biology for an implant that can reinforce surgical repairs,” said Bennett. “This novel technology has significant potential.”
New Haven, Connecticut-based Biorez was founded in 2016. Its mission is “to help patients with debilitating tendon and ligament injuries return to their normal levels of activities and lifestyles sooner and safer.” The Biorez team includes an integrative staff of experienced engineers, surgeons, scientists and medical device professionals. “This award is a great honor, and a testament to all the hard work and innovative research by the entire Biorez team,” said Biorez CEO and Founder Kevin Rocco.
Rocco told OTW, “The BioBrace is a differentiated implant material in that it can reinforce soft tissue repair, and act as a biologic scaffold to promote healing. We believe this is the first product that can augment soft tissue repair both mechanically and biologically and is readily incorporated into many existing surgical techniques. I think this stood out to the judges, and many expressed interest in incorporating the BioBrace into their clinical practice.”
