Chief Scientific officer of Oxford Performance Materials to Highlight OsteoFab at NASS

Adam Hacking, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of South Windsor, Conn.-based Oxford Performance Materials Inc. (OPM), will deliver a Solution Showcase Presentation on the company’s OsteoFab process as an advanced 3-D printed platform for spinal reconstruction and patient-specific implants that support bone attachment at the North American Spine Society (NASS) Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, Nov. 14th at 12:00 pm.

The OsteoFab process combines laser sintering additive manufacturing technology and OPM’s proprietary OXPEKK powder formulation to print spinal, facial and cranial implants. In February last year, OPM earned U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance to manufacture 3-D printed polymeric implants utilizing its polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) cranial devices. OPM received a second FDA clearance for its patient-specific facial implants in July this year.

“Titanium has been a material of choice for skeletal devices due to its strength and proven ability to integrate with bone tissue. PEKK is a high performance thermopolymer with high strength, purity, radiolucency and a history of biocompatibility,” said Hacking. “Recent advances have enabled the fabrication of PEKK devices by additive manufacturing (3-D printing), a core OPM process referred to as OsteoFab technology. An important characteristic of the OsteoFab process is a peak-and-pit like surface morphology that has been associated with improved peri-implant bone formation. In vivo studies show that OsteoFab devices support the attachment of bone tissue.”