LifeBond’s bio-glue is unmatched as it heads into clinical trials ahead of marketing in Europe and the US.
By Rivka Borochov
Born from a need on the battlefield, Israeli company LifeBond has created a new application for its surgical adhesive material that seals surgical wounds to specifications. Expected to be on the European market by next year, the product addresses a serious problem on the operating table.
According to Dr. Yuval Avni of Giza Venture Capital, which recently invested $20 million in LifeBond together with Aurum Ventures MKI, in some 10 to 20 percent of abdominal surgery cases, surgical staples allow leakage of fluids, which can lead to sepsis and death.
LifeBond’s trademarked gelatin- and enzyme-based biological glue is the secret behind its LifeSeal GI staple line reinforcement sealant, which seals and strengthens the staple line and narrows the spaces between each staple. It cuts down on leakage, bleeding and tearing at the staple line, especially in diseased and fragile tissue. Mimicking late-stage blood coagulation, LifeSeal GI is the only medical adhesive of its kind.
The product is not like Krazy Glue but is actually a sophisticated "technology platform," explains Avner, a vascular surgeon. "We can tweak it depending on the application to glue fast or slow. Or if we want it in the body over months or days." Other bio-glues on the market, he adds, have very specific applications with no variability. "This is like a superglue that can treat all applications."
A better way to stop surgical bleeding
Before Giza invested in LifeBond, Avni attended a medical conference in Switzerland to feel out the market. One surgeon remarked to him that in aviation it would not be acceptable for one of 10 pilots to be struck down from the sky, and similarly it should not be acceptable for so many abdominal surgery patients to be at risk. LifeBond’s solution, Avni explains, provides "peace of mind, money savings and patient confidence that the surgery went well."
The LifeBond surgical sealant is also central to the company’s other product, LifePatch, which surgeons can apply to a bleeding or leaking injury site. The components inside the patch mix to form a firm adhesive gel that seals off a wound site. The patch can be removed or safely left in place to be reabsorbed as the matrix degrades.
Avni says the product is especially useful when the surgeon cannot find the hole that is causing uncontrolled bleeding. This can be from a traumatic wound such as a gunshot, or a punctured aorta or kidney, for example. Avni says he felt from the start that LifeBond founders and biomedical engineers Ishay Attar and Orahn Preiss-Bloom had a promising technology that addressed a clear need.
"I wanted to know: Does it work or not? When Ishay called me and said, ‘We are going to have a clinical trial, and would you join as a surgeon?’ I decided to do so. I did part of the surgeries with my own hands to see how it works. At that moment, I knew I wanted to invest."
The infusion of VC funds will go toward clinical testing and approvals, first in Europe and then in the United States in 2012. LifeSeal GI has been tested on 10 people so far.
LifeBond, based in Caesarea, Israel, is also supported by $10 million in investments from GlenRock Israel, the Zitelman Group, and Pitango.