SPARTHA MEDICALEU-funded research project leads to founding of company

Spartha Medical, based in Strasbourg, France, is a spin-off of the Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM). It participated as a research project partner in the two EU projects IMMODGEL (Local Immunomodulation in the Implant Environment by Innovative Hydrogel-based Systems) and PANBioRA (Personalised and Generalised Integrated Risk Assessment of Biomaterials).

One of the first coating technologies for implants originated from Spartha - at that time still as a department at INSERM - funded under the FP7 project IMMODGEL. Spartha led the work package to develop an anti-inflammatory coating.

The results from IMMODGEL led to an initial patent application, followed by further development of the technology, which led to the establishment of the company in 2019. Spartha Medical then won a national innovation award, saw its first revenues and is now working with several large companies. Recently, the spin-off closed a first round of funding, which will amount to EUR 1.4 - 2.3 million, depending on how government investment complements grants and loans.

In parallel, five of the eight IMMODGEL partners continued their successful collaboration with the Steinbeis Europa Zentrum in the PANBioRA research project, funded under the H2020 programme. Spartha Medical took over the scientific coordination of this project and further developed their anti-inflammatory coatings were further.  This led to a further patent application. In total, the PANBioRA project submitted four patent applications.

This was followed by the positive news at the end of 2021 that Spartha had been selected for a 2.4 million EUR grant under the EIC Accelerator programme. The programme is one of the most competitive in Europe, with a selection rate of 6% in 2021.

At the PANBioRA final event in December 2021, it became clear that the technology offers great potential for growth. The partners have decided to continue their cooperation in the future. A time schedule and the necessary steps for the foundation of a possible spin-off have been discussed in order to exploit the research results in the best possible way.

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum provided the administrative coordination in both IMMODGEL and the follow-up project PANBioRA and supported the research partners in communication, dissemination and exploitation activities of research results.

EU funding: Horizon 2020: approx. 8 million EUR, 01/2018 – 12/2021

Learn more about the PANBioRA project here!