SpineGuard Collaborates With the European Project FAROS (Functional Accurate RObotic Surgery)

Make orthopedic surgical robots smarter and less dependent on x-rays

PARIS & BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

SpineGuard (FR0011464452 – ALSGD) (Paris:ALSGD), an innovative company that deploys its DSG® (Dynamic Surgical Guidance) sensing technology to secure and streamline the placement of bone implants, announced today its collaboration on the European project FAROS (Functional Accurate RObotic Surgery).

The FAROS project started on January 1^st, 2021 with a three-year term, it is financed by Horizon 2020, the largest European Union research and innovation program, deploying close to 80 billion euros financing over a seven-year period. Four prestigious universities are participants to this project: KU Leuven, Sorbonne Université, King's College London and Universität Zürich. SpineGuard is a project collaborator, along with the Balgrist University Hospital of Zurich.

As supporting organization, SpineGuard will provide the FAROS members their DSG technology. This key feedback technology will help the surgical robot which will possess multiple sensing capabilities to execute complex surgical tasks in an autonomous and controlled manner. DSG is expected to be pivotal in ensuring this happens in a safe and precise fashion. Moreover, two SpineGuard members have a seat on the External Advisory Board of the project: Maurice Bourlion, Board director and scientific advisor, and Thibault Chandanson, R&D director. Jimmy Da Silva, PhD student and engineer at SpineGuard in the context of a CIFRE contract with Sorbonne University's ISIR (Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics) is also part of the research team.

Stéphane Bette, cofounder and deputy CEO of SpineGuard, declares: "We are thrilled and proud of being selected by the four prestigious universities of the FAROS project to contribute to their effort by providing our DSG sensing technology, unique know-how in the field of real-time surgical guidance without x-ray imaging. This project, which entails the development of an artificial intelligence, is in straight alignment with the work accomplished for three years with Guillaume Morel's ISIR at Sorbonne University. We expect multiple positive downfalls for SpineGuard: scientific and technologic mastery, innovations, commercial applications, visibility, and enhancement of our strategic value. It is for all these reasons that we are fully committed to support this project which is perfectly in line with our innovation strategy to secure and streamline the placement of implants in the skeleton."

Guillaume Morel, Professor at Sorbonne University, adds: "The idea behind FAROS is largely inspired by our first collaborative research with SpineGuard. It consists in breaking the paradigm of guidance based exclusively on image, which dominates today's surgical and orthopedic robotics and whose limits are well-known: deformations causing errors, loss of anatomical information in images, radiation dangers, etc. How can we solve these issues? By integrating several non-visual sensors as surgeons do when they guide their gesture, in particular within the last millimeters. That is precisely where the DSG technology is attractive, as it has been proven in the operating room. Our idea is to use it in combination with other sensors such as ultrasound-based sensors, which are by the way also developed by SpineGuard. From the multiple information, we will create artificial intelligence algorithms that will provide a functional indication (nature and state of tissues, progress of gesture) as opposed to solely geometrical. On the robotic standpoint, such an approach is truly disruptive and could eventually lead to surgical gestures performed by robots in full autonomy. A revolution."

About SpineGuard®
Founded in 2009 in France and the USA by Pierre Jérôme and Stéphane Bette, SpineGuard is an innovative company deploying its proprietary radiation-free real time sensing technology DSG® (Dynamic Surgical Guidance) to secure and streamline the placement of implants in the skeleton. SpineGuard designs, develops and markets medical devices that have been used in over 80,000 surgical procedures worldwide. Sixteen studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals have demonstrated the multiple benefits DSG® offers to patients, surgeons, surgical staff and hospitals. Building on these solid fundamentals and several strategic partnerships, SpineGuard has expanded its technology platform in a disruptive innovation: the « smart » pedicle screw launched late 2017 and is broadening the scope of applications in dental implantology and surgical robotics. DSG® was co-invented by Maurice Bourlion, Ph.D., Ciaran Bolger, M.D., Ph.D., and Alain Vanquaethem, Biomedical Engineer.

For further information, visit www.spineguard.com

Disclaimer
The SpineGuard securities may not be offered or sold in the United States as they have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act or any United States state securities laws, and SpineGuard does not intend to make a public offer of its securities in the United States. This is an announcement and not a prospectus, and the information contained herein does and shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the securities referred to herein in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or exemption from registration.

SpineGuard
Pierre Jérôme
CEO & Chairman
Tel.: +33 1 45 18 45 19
p.jerome@spineguard.com

SpineGuard
Manuel Lanfossi
CFO
Tél.: +33 1 45 18 45 19
m.lanfossi@spineguard.com

NewCap
Investor Relations & Financial Communication
Mathilde Bohin / Louis Tilquin
Tel.: +33 1 44 71 94 94
spineguard@newcap.eu