PRODUCT PIPELINE : OTHER
APPLICATIONS
Tepha’s proprietary technology provides the company with a
key competitive advantage. The firm’s biomaterials
have a broad range of properties, allowing the company to
tailor its products to specific applications and develop
multiple products for multiple markets. This is unique
in terms of breadth of the design space for absorbable
biomaterials. Below are other examples of applications
where Tepha's technology provides medical device
innovations.
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Drug
Delivery
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Delivering therapeutic compounds safely and
effectively into the body is a significant
challenge, particularly in light of the wide range
of different physical, chemical, pharmacological,
and pharmacokinetic characteristics of drugs today.
For example, many drugs cannot be delivered
orally if their gastrointestinal absorption is
impaired or if they are metabolized in the digestive
process. However, many injectible medications
are absorbed by the body so rapidly that the
duration of action is short, requiring the patient
to take more frequent doses. Many of these
issues can be addressed by incorporating drugs into
an implantable, absorbable delivery system.
Tepha's technology presents an opportunity to
develop a new class of drug delivery devices with
many options to tailor the properties as needed.
Such variables include controlling different
drug release profiles and absorption rates, and
developing a range of processing and formulation
methods. Furthermore, drug delivery technology
can be combined with medical devices to develop
products such as drug-coated stents.
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Urology
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Following the treatment of certain obstructive
diseases, temporary urological stents are frequently
used to allow patients to void, to prevent tissue
from regrowing and leading to restricted urine flow,
and in cases to assist in the removal of small
stones. For example, stents are used to
facilitate urine flow and passage of kidney stone
fragments after lithotripsy (crushing of stones by
mechanical force or sound waves), as well as to
allow free urine flow following the treatment of
benign prostatic hyperplasia, a condition
characterized by the enlargement of the prostate
gland which can block the normal flow of urine.
However, the currently available,
non-absorbable stents have several disadvantages.
Not only must these stents be removed in a
subsequent procedure, but this removal procedure can
be difficult and painful as tissue can begin to grow
over these devices shortly after implantation.
Tepha's polymers are being evaluated for use as
absorbable urology stents which could provide
patients with all the functional advantages of their
nonabsorbable counterparts.
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