Story
It all started in December 2013. After 2 years of research and development supported by the Centre of Technological Resources in Chemistry, Certech (Belgium), the founders Eric Rompen, France Lambert and Geoffrey Lecloux together established Wishbone SA. Together with The Faktory, a private seed investment fund, incubator and accelerator based in Liège, Wishbone set up their production and process development facility in Flémalle. The guiding light of the genesis of Wishbone is to design and fine-tune a high-tech recipe to extract and inactivate all proteins, including prions, from bovine bone, but which would preserve the highly osteoconductive micro and nano-topography of the natural bone. In the early days, the development of the superior biomaterials took place at the highly specialized CRO at Certech, enabling access to the most up-to-date equipment such as SEM and IR, to Certech’s expertise in materials development and its strong reference in the pharmaceutical market. Wishbone biomaterials are in addition tested and developed in close collaboration with the Periodontology/Dental Surgery of the University of Liège (Belgium) enabling access to the University’s infrastructure and network.
Timeline
- 2013: Wishbone SA was created and incubated by The Faktory, in Liège. Patented its production process.
- 2014: Wishbone SA moved to its brand new facilities in Liège.
- 2015: Commissioning of its industrial production line in cleanroom conditions.
- 2016: ISO 13485 certification implemented.
- 2018: 1st Clinical study started in Humans
- 2021: Long term follow up clinical study data – 100% graft material success
- 2021: Appointment of Daniel Bee as CEO
- 2021: Additional patents registered for Wishbone’s core technology
- 2021: €2.7m successful funding round
- 2021: Appointment of François Blondel as Chairman
- 2021: FDA510(k) certification achieved
- 2022: Further €1m non-dilutive funding secured
- 2022: USA Commercial launch
- 2022: First patients treated in the US