OVERVIEW : MEDICAL DEVICES DEVELOPED THROUGH BIOTECHNOLOGY   Tepha was incorporated in 1998 following a successful collaboration between our sister company, Metabolix, Inc. (Cambridge, MA) and Children’s Hospital, Boston in project involving cardiovascular tissue engineering. Surgeons at Children’s Hospital had been attempting to develop a tissue engineered heart valve that could grow with the patient. Such a product would represent a quantum leap in heart valve surgery for the pediatric population, eliminating the need to replace the valve after a few years.   Using the Company's proprietary technology, Tepha was able to successfully produce a biomaterial scaffold suitable for tissue engineered valves. The results of subsequent experiments were astounding. It was found that the newly implanted valves grew with their recipients, and its scaffolds completely remodeled into new heart valve tissue that resembled the native tissues within six to eight weeks. The success of the Company’s technology in cardiovascular tissue engineering has caught the attention of many medical device developers, and it has opened the door for Tepha to form product development partnerships for the application of its technology to a variety of absorbable medical devices.  Since our polymers are synthesized by a proprietary transgenic production technology that accesses an extensive library of building blocks, we are able to tailor the properties of our polymers to specific medical applications.  The vast design space offered by our technology presents opportunities to engineer new medical materials with varying rates of bioabsorption that cannot be produced by any other means.  Furthermore, unlike competing biomaterials, Tepha’s polymers are biocompatible and non-inflammatory, degrading by cell friendly processes into metabolites that already exist in humans.   Our patented technology has resulted in the first biologically-derived absorbable elastomers for medical use, opening up a range of novel device possibilities.  Our polymers are aggressively being evaluated for use in an extensive range of medical devices in addition to bioengineered heart valves, including orthopedic fixation devices and general surgical products such as sutures, patches, and mesh.   Tepha is a privately held company, directed by a team with significant experience in biotechnology, finance, and medical devices.  Insights of this team have helped lead to the success of companies such as SciMed (Boston Scientific), Xomed (Medtronic), American Medical Systems, Wright Medical, and Genzyme.