SynkroMax Biotech sings MoU for life saving implant SynkroScaff

CHENNAI: Asia's first life saving Implant "SynkroScaff", a Tissue Engineered Bovine Pericardial Patch for critical cardiovascular patients is on its way to the market. SynkroScaff has developed by the researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M).

Chennai-based firm SynkroMax Biotech (SMBPL) has singed a memorandum of understanding for selling this product solely in Asian global market.

The Technology Development Centre of SynkroMax is a state-of-the-art facility set up for providing Research and Development facilities to Research Scholars, Companies and Institutions, who would like to outsource the R & D activities. SynkroMax has the necessary expertise and qualified/ experienced personnel for Quality Assurance, Assay Development and Validation of Industrial and Speciality Enzymes.

Explaining the quality and features of the product, Soma Guhathakurta, IIT-M adjunct professor and director of SMBPL, said it had the potential to revolutionize the field of surgical patches with products designed and made in India. She further explained the advantages of the SynkroScaff :

1) India’s dependence on imports will be eliminated.

2) Patients won’t have to undergo a second procedure to remove the sack after usage.

3) SynkroScaff has inherent properties of regeneration and integration in the body.

CV Seshadri, MD, SMBPL said, “This sack is harvested and processed with biomaterial for ten days followed by quality control parameters to ensure it is microbial free. In India, chemicals like glutaraldehyde or formaldehyde are used, which are toxic and harmful, causing post complications in patients; 12 of 13 have congenital heart defect. Most of them do not get proper treatment.”

The development of SynkroScaff using indigenous technology originally sprouted out of Guhathakurta’s doctoral research in IIT-M in 2004, under the guidance of Venkatesh Balasubramanian, professor, Department of Engineering Design it.

Soma Guhathakurta claims that the product has got versatile use to achieve anatomical correction of the heart and its blood vessels’ deformities and deficiencies. “Its applications are immense in cardiovascular and other surgical practices. We obtained the licence for the product in May this year. So far, 800 patches have been manufactured and over 12 surgeons are using them across India. Apollo Hospitals, Kauvery Hospital in Chennai and AIIMS in Delhi are using it. We have also enrolled for Central Medical Services Society (CMSS) recognition of the product. The feedback from doctors and patients has been encouraging, with a 100 per cent success rate. The product is manufactured in a facility complying with drug applications and current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) guidelines, she added", reports Media

Venkatesh Balasubramanian, who mentored Guhathakurta, said, “It is always a desire that the philosophical work done as a doctoral thesis is inventive and innovative. This was possible by an innovative processing of xenogeneic tissue for human usage. While the doctoral work won the best thesis award from Indian National Science Academy (INSA) in 2008, the true victory is when it is available as a surgical patch for the world, made in India. It is a pleasure that Soma Guhathakurtha and SMBPL are taking this technology to offer SynkroScaff, a product conceived, researched, designed, developed and made in India, for the world. Balasubramanian said the cost of imported material between 30,000 and 35,000 would be slashed by half using India-made implants."