Company Background
Verigen is an Internationally established Biotherapy® company which focuses on autologous Biotherapy® in orthopaedic surgery and currently provides advanced technologies for the treatment of articular hyaline cartilage defects and other pre-osteoarthritis conditions.

Our work encompasses patented methods for the propagation of chondrocytes and technology for the production of bio-re-absorbable membranes.

We have pipelines of innovative technologies in autologous Biotherapy® including stem cell biology and bio-reactors. As a consequence, Verigen maintains strong links with universities and leading academics around the world.

Verigen Aims
Verigen’s strategy is to deliver advanced articular hyaline cartilage Regeneration procedures to patients throughout our own worldwide network of Verigen standard laboratories.

Verigen Objectives

• To generate cost effective products and procedures
• To produce less invasive surgical procedures
• To shorten rehabilitation time
• To achieve good to excellent clinical outcomes

Articular Hyaline Cartilage Defects and Treatments

Every year millions of adults around the world suffer lesions to the articular hyaline cartilage, the most common problems being traumatic damage and osteochondritis dissecans. Natural recovery from these injuries in adults is hampered by the fact that hyaline cartilage does not regenerate in the body.

Provided that some healthy residual cartilage remains, lesions categorised as Grades III and IV on the “Outerbridge” classification, as well as defects caused by osteochondris dissecans can be successfully treated by autologous chondrocyte implantation.

Various procedures have been available to the surgeon in treating these injuries including debridement, lavage, microfracturing, mosaicplasty, subchondral bone drilling and abrasion arthroplasty, but none restore articular hyaline cartilage. Although fibrocartilage may be produced to fill cartilage defects by these conventional treatments, this surrogate tissue is unable to retain the mechanical strength and has a relatively short life.

Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation

Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (ACI) has been shown to be a promising method for the restoration of hyaline cartilage. The procedure for implanting new autologous chondrocytes into a defect has been perfected by Verigen to the point where the defect is replaced by regenerated hyaline type cartilage rather than fibro-cartilage. The new hyaline to hyaline-like cartilage formed by implanted autologous chondrocytes has biomechanical properties similar to those of natural articular hyaline cartilage offering a long-term solution to articular hyaline cartilage injuries of this nature.

Cultivation of chondrocytes in Verigen GMP certified laboratories, implantation by qualified surgeons and good functional rehabilitation are three key steps for the success of autologous chondrocyte implantation.

Patient Selection

• Symptomatic
• Aged between 15-55 years (older patients may be considered on a case basis)
• No osteoarthritic or rheumatoid arthritic conditions
• Single or multiple lesions, large defects can also be treated
• Bio-mechanically stable knee, no valgus or varus deformity
• No previous history of gentamycin sensitivity

Collagen covered ACI & MACI® Key Benefits

• Shortened recovery time.
  The average patient recovery times for Collagen covered ACI and MACI® are 4 weeks and 3 weeks respectively compared to 12 & 10 weeks respectively for artificial knee transplantation and ACI with a periosteal flap.
• Reduced length of intervention.
  The Incision is smaller in comparison to other treatments and the procedure shorter therefore less anaesthetic and operative time is required. The incision for MACI® is even smaller than for Collagen covered ACII.
• Increased Good to Excellent clinical outcomes.
  A recent study demonstrated that unlike mosaicplasty, patients with Collagen covered ACI have continuous improvement, NOT ongoing deterioration (Bentley 2001).
• Return to Work or physical/sporting activity earlier.
  The prospects for returning to work are much higher with Collagen covered ACI and MACI® compared to patients undergoing need for total ACI with a periosteal flap.
• Reduced need for total knee replacements.
  Evidence from long term studies by Peterson (2001) showed that 96% of patients who underwent Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (ACI) when assessed at 2 years and re-evaluated at 11 years were graded ‘good’ according to the Cincinnati score. Many other techniques fail within two to four years post surgery (2 years being a landmark stage for assessing recovery), resulting in the need for additional knee treatments (Petersen, 2001). Health economic studies show that the introduction of autologous chondrocyte implantation will reduce joint replacement in young patients, 30% of which require revision surgery in ten years.

Contact details
Verigen UK Limited
Suite 9
305 Great Portland Street
London W1W 5DD
United Kingdom

Tel +44 (0) 20 7580 4325
Fax +44 (0) 20 7323 1897
Email: claire.phillips@verigen.com

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