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The Future Gold
Standard in

Nerve Repair

Newrotex develops innovative silk-based medical
solutions for the nervous system.

The answer to “Can you repair nerves?” shouldn’t come with caveats. This is why Newrotex is set to disrupt existing approaches to surgical nerve repair. We’re on track to provide an alternative to autografts, the current gold standard in treatment for nerve injuries. A gold standard that requires sacrificing a healthy nerve from another part of the body. With our patented silk-based technology, we’ll deliver an off-the-shelf solution for surgical repair of the nerve. Without the need for long, complicated operations or using expensive donor tissues, Newrotex makes immediate treatment possible for patients who have suffered nerve injuries due to trauma, medical conditions, or surgical treatments.

Addressing an Unmet Need
in Nerve Repair

1.5

million

Annual operations for nerve injuries

Newrotex silk-based nerve conduits address the shortcomings of the solutions currently available.

Most of the world’s 1.5 million annual operations for nerve injuries are treated with autografts requiring a second injury and long surgery times, along with risking donor site morbidity and infection.

All of the major current solutions – autografts, allografts, and hollow tube conduits – are limited when repairing large gaps in nerves. Read Current Approaches for more about these and other shortcomings with current solutions for peripheral nerve repair.

Newrotex silk nerve conduits not only shorten procedure times, they are low-cost, simple to use, and effective for long-length nerve repairs.
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Why Silk is a Good Choice
for Nerve Repair

Over the past few decades, the potential biomedical applications of silk have been gaining interest at an exponential rate.

The versatility created by silk’s chemical structure allows for the production of fibres, gels, scaffolds, films, membranes, and powders. Silk has shown to have excellent cell affinity, and being biocompatible, with the ability to tailor biodegradation, silk is an ideal candidate for biomedical applications.

In terms of nerve repair, luminal silk fibres inside the conduit guide regenerating axons, while the bioabsorbable, permeable tube allows nutrients to support nerve regeneration. Furthermore, silk products can be stored at room temperature, thereby removing the need for expensive cold storage and transportation.

Our Solution

The Oxford Nerve Conduit

Our first product is a silk-based peripheral nerve conduit. Filled with luminal silk fibres, the biocompatible tubular device will be available in a range of lengths and diameters.

These luminal silk fibres are also a distinct product on their own, to be integrated into other hollow tubes available on the market.

The fibres have proven nerve-regenerating properties and animal trials show them to be comparable or superior to autografts. And with a porous tubular biocompatible sheath designed to encourage vascularisation, we provide a new and better approach to treating patients with peripheral nerve injuries.

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Long-term Vision

Newrotex is currently working to advance the Oxford Nerve Conduit towards first-in-human trials. We are also developing collaborations in which our silk platform technology may lead to further improvements in patient care, such as Schwann cell delivery and spinal cord injury repair.

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Blog

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March 15, 2024

CEO, Alex Woods will be giving an invited talk at the 6th Annual Oxford Surgical Innovation Conference at St Catherine’s College, the University of Oxford

Details and registration can be found here: https://app.medall.org/event-listings/6th-annual-oxford-surgical-innovation-conference

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December 5, 2023

Newrotex Founders Dr Alex Woods and Professor Fritz Vollrath were interviewed by Sean Hargrave for Oxford University Innovation in a great piece “Spiders, Surgery and Sustainable Silk” released today.

The article describes some of the incredible uses of silk and the work we’re doing to bring a new standard of treatment for patient’s who have suffered catastrophic nerve injuries. Check out the article on the University of Oxford website here: https://oxford.shorthandstories.com/spiders-surgery-and-sustainable-silk/index.html

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November 7, 2023

Newrotex have been selected for another prize final from the MedTech Innovator 2023 cohort!

The finalists for the “Value Award” are selected by large strategics, entrepreneurs and investors to showcase the companies bringing a great value proposition with their technology. Following the great response from the recent presentation at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) conference, this is further recognition of the value of our silk repair technology and the huge impact it will have on patients lives. Read the full press release here: https://medtechinnovator.org/medtech-innovator-announces-finalists-of-inaugural-2023-mid-stage-competition/. We’re looking forward to the competition at the MedTech Strategist Innovation Summit in San Francisco.

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October 29, 2023

Newrotex wins a prize in Austin, Texas at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) 92nd Annual Plastic Surgery The Meeting!

Newrotex wins a prize in Austin, Texas at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) 92nd Annual Plastic Surgery The Meeting! Newrotex was selected by the ASPS Plastic Surgery Accelerator powered by MedTech Innovator, and featured as one of 5 best-in-class startups: Newrotex Ltd, ImmersiveTouch, Fingy3D, 4th Dimension EMR, Inc and Cellulora. The culmination of the program was a live competition at the plastic surgery annual meeting where the audience voted Fingy3D for Best Overall Winner and Newrotex Ltd for Runner-Up. We were delighted with all the positive feedback from plastic surgeons and strategic companies on our technology and the clear need for patients. We’re looking forward to all of the exciting new collaborative opportunities going forwards.    

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