Additional Patents Awarded to HAPPE Spine for New Material Platform

HAPPE Spine has added two patents to its HAPPE material (HydroxyApatite Porous PolyEtheretherketone) platform.

The HAPPE portfolio offers interconnected, cancellous porosity and bioactive surfaces with exposed hydroxyapatite to enable robust bone in-growth and on-growth confirmed in preclinical testing.
 
“We are pleased the USPTO has granted utility patents for our implant design and manufacturing process that build upon previously issued and pending utility patents for our material composition,” said Dr. Ryan K. Roeder, founder and chief technology officer. “Together, these patents establish a strong intellectual property position for HAPPE in the emerging market for porous HA PEEK devices.”
 
U.S. Patent Number 11,179,243 protects implantable devices such as interbody spinal fusion cages that are constructed with (1) a thermoplastic polymer such as polyetheretherketone, (2) at least one region with interconnected porosity, and (3) bioactive particles such as hydroxyapatite integrated in the polymer and exposed on pore surfaces to encourage bone ingrowth.
 
U.S. Patent Number 11,426,904 protects a process for forming implants from thermoplastic polymers with regions of differing porosity. Unlike additive manufacturing of PEEK implants, the process enables molding of monolithic implants from powder-based raw materials such that there are no seams, joints or bonds in the implant, but rather a continuous polymer matrix between regions of relatively porous and dense material.
 
HAPPE Spine LLC is a medical device development company that designs and commercializes spinal implants using the patented HAPPE material platform. HAPPE transforms polyetheretherketone from a hydrophobic, bioinert, and non-integrating material into a hydrophilic, bioactive, and osteointegrating material, confirmed by robust bone in-growth and on-growth in preclinical testing. The HAPPE INTEGRATE  interbody fusion system is the first interbody fusion cage to offer bone-like cancellous porosity with bioactive surfaces through the entire implant height to promote endplate-to-endplate osteointegration. INTEGRATE is designed to promote both load bearing and healing, as well as superior post-operative imaging. The HAPPE INTEGRATE interbody fusion system thus offers allograft-like qualities in a synthetic implant that can improve clinical outcomes in interbody spinal fusion by overcoming the problems of pseudoarthrosis, subsidence and imaging artifacts that limit current PEEK and titanium implants.