Co.Don: An Alternative Approach to Treating Cartilage Defects

Our autologous cell therapy leverages the “power” of patients’ own cells to restore cartilage tissue

Moving along the trajectory of its early success, CO.DON is constantly making improvements in its M-ACT treatment. The company has shortened the delivery time of the chondrocyte spheroids to mitigate any delay in the treatment, and also increased the shelf-life of the spheroids for cross-country use. In this context, CO.DON develops its own software designed for process optimization which raises the documentation issues arising in the field of transplantation medicine to a new level. The aim of the software is to ensure a significant reduction of the previous manual activities between physicians, hospitals and participating companies in order to increase efficiency for the benefit of patients.

Jakobs says, “While our EU-approved productacts as our foundational stone, our service orientation is the driving factor that helpsbuild a long-term and stable partnership with healthcare facilities for the benefit of patients.”

Recently, a leadingUniversity Hospital Center, one of the largest health facilities in the Netherlands, became the first Dutch hospital to start treating cartilage defects with the CO.DON’s product. Jakobs highlights that having its M-ACT process translated into clinical use outside Germany is a critical milestone in CO.DON’s corporate strategy. He says, “Together with our hospital partners, we can enable patients in the Netherlands to receive personalized, regenerative, and sustainable treatment for cartilage defects.”

Next month, CO.DON is set to inaugurate another facility, which, according to Jakobs, is “cell-production 2.0.” In contrast to the previous systems, the new plant will have a clean room area of only 19 square meters. The innovations developed and introduced by us will lead to an increase in production capacities with a reduction in the clean room area while at the same time significantly reducing the costs both in the operation of the plant and in the area of personnel required for operation. By using this technology, we can more than triple our production capacity and are now in a position to offer significant outsourcing to other companies.

Also, considering the rising government interest around M-ACT treatment, CO.DON is looking to build a more collaborative relationship with the government to help the German defence force members. From his experience as an army officer, Jakobs notes that combat troops often sustain joint injuries on their active line of duties, which causes early retirement among armed force personnel. To help to reduce this early retirement rate, CO.DON has plans of providing its service to the armed forces, offering them a new lease of life.

In addition, CO.DON is currently expanding its business to France and Italy. The company also has plans for starting its operation in the U.S., and it is currently searching for a suitable partner to offer its treatment across North American states.

The Promise of a Better Future

Amidst all these successes, CO.DON, as pointed out by Jakobs, will always stay focused on the R&D in the orthopaedic treatment domain, instead of venturing into multiple therapeutic domains. Jakobs says, “We are only at the tip of the iceberg in the regenerative medicine segment. CO.DON’s goal is to generate more awareness for this mode of treatment and make the treatment accessible to more patients.” Moving forward with this mission, CO.DON is planning to look at stem cell treatment as a potential addition to its regenerative therapy. Supplementing this plan, CO.DON is making progress toward getting further EU-approval for application of M-ACT therapy for adolescents below 18 years of age.