PrinterPrezz sets up co-located facility to bring 3D printed medical devices to market
PrinterPrezz, Inc., a California-based medical manufacturing company that specializes in metal 3D printing and nanotechnologies, is partnering with UCSF Surgical Innovations, an incubator-accelerator for medtech startups at the University of California, San Francisco. Through the partnership, PrinterPrezz and UCSF Surgical Innovations will establish a co-located innovation facility aimed at driving the use of AM for medical devices.
Though still young, PrinterPrezz has big ambitions for the medical 3D printing sector. The company, which calls itself the first “Medifacturing” company, leverages a combination of metal AM, nanotechnologies and surgical expertise to deliver next-generation medical devices. To date, the company has partnered with 3D scanning specialist Growshapes LLC and medical device company SI-BONE, Inc.
Through the recent collaboration with UCSF Surgical Innovations, PrinterPrezz hopes to bring sophisticated 3D printed medical devices to market faster. As mentioned, the partnership includes the establishment of a co-located innovation facility at PrinterPrezz, which will offer engineering and manufacturing access, as well as an open ecosystem of hardware and software, aimed at facilitating the commercialization of new devices.
The partnership will also include access to the expertise of UCSF clinicians, engineers, trainees and administrative staff, including their knowledge of clinical needs and product performance specifications. Finally, the partners will set up a platform to protect UCSF intellectual property as well as jointly developed IP.
“Our commitment to innovation, research, and new technologies drives us to continuously develop transformative methods of care,” said Dr. Hanmin Lee, Professor of Surgery at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals and Surgical Innovations’ Clinical Lead. “UCSF Surgical Innovations’ partnership brings together university research and development expertise with access to outstanding industry design and manufacturing capabilities.”
Shri Shetty, CEO of PrinterPrezz, added: “We recognize the special role of innovation hospitals in making clinical advancements more accessible to broader patient populations. We established our co-location center as a foundation for hospital partners to incubate and accelerate ideas from sketches to commercialization quickly. Our joint IP agreement provides our partner hospitals an essential environment to develop their ideas safely. PrinterPrezz provides direct access design and production technologies, allowing UCSF clinicians to develop more ideas than previously possible.”
The co-location facility will provide a number of resources to PrinterPrezz and its partners, including access to technology, IP incubation and faster commercialization. Essentially, hospital partners can bring their IP and ideas to market more quickly by utilizing PrinterPrezz’s center and resources.
Dr. Jeffrey Barry, Assistant Professor of Clinical Orthopaedic Surgery at UCSF, specializing in adult hip and knee reconstruction for arthritis, said” “Building on experience as an arthroplasty surgeon, I have several ideas that I have been developing, and this relationship gives me the opportunity to work with design engineers to further develop, prototype and build new devices with the goal of improving patient care.”
