Linköping, 29 June 2010. AddBIO AB wins regional 2010 SKAPA Prize
Dr. Trine Vikinge, president AddBIO AB, a Mjärdevi and LEAD company, was awarded the regional 2010 SKAPA-Prize for Skruvcoat, a ground-breaking product in surgical orthopedics.
Skruvcoat is designed to facilitate healing and reduce complications following surgery for fractures. The secret is a thin coating for screws and implants—serving to improve fixation of the devices and to strengthen the impacted area of the skeleton, and to promote healing.
The SKAPA Prize is one of Sweden's most prestigious prizes awarded to inventors in memory of Alfred Nobel. The award of 35000 SEK is designed to incentivise the commercialisation of technological innovation and creativity.
Magnus Hägglund from ALMI , the regional business development agency, handed over the scholarship of 35 000 SEK to Dr. Vikinge saying, "Spare parts for humans are sometimes necessary. Knees and hips may need to be strengthened or replaced. Screws and nails tend to work great on young people, but olderpatients have brittle bones, and it is often difficult to keep screws and nails in place. To help reduce the number of unsuccessful hip and knee operations due in particular to complications from older bones, Skruvcoat is a project that has developed a method to deliver drugs directly in situ via implants such as knees, hips or screws. The patient does not have to live with pain and healthcare systems save money. The product is expected to be of great importance in orthopedic surgery."
ALMI, in cooperation with the County of Östergötland sponsors the regional scholarship. AddBIO AB will now represent Östergötland for the national SKAPA Prize of 500 000 SEK which will be awarded at the opening of the Technical Fair in Stockholm on 19 October 2010.
Trine Vikinge shares the prize with professors Per Aspenberg and Pentti Tengvall both of whom have extensive experience in orthopedic research that has led to the AddBIO innovation.
Dr. Vikinge believes that the product will lead to a variety of applications in the future and she sees the valuation of the product as a confirmation that others can see the product's promise.
- Inventions that save both suffering and money are really needed” said Dr. Vikinge in her acknowledgement for the prize. ”About 100 million surgical screws are manufactured annually. If we coat just one tenth of them with Skruvcoat, we'll see some success.”
