Margaret Kalmeta, Rapid Nexus - Studio Interview | LSI Europe ‘22
Transcription
Nick Talamantes 0:00
Dr. Margaret, thank you so much for coming by and talking to us here at LSI. Europe.
Margaret Kalmeta 0:04
Thank you for having me.
Nick Talamantes 0:05
Tell me a little bit about rapid Nexus.
Margaret Kalmeta 0:07
Right. Rapid Nexus was founded to prevent amputations and to close chronic wounds that currently are unclosed by industry. So we target the population that is diabetic and elderly. Right now they are unserviced. Today alone, 1500 people will receive an amputation just because they have diabetes, for example, in the US alone. And also every 20 seconds around the globe, someone is receiving an amputation for the very same reason because they have diabetes. So it's a massive train wreck about to happen in society is already a pandemic within pandemic. It's a silent pandemic. This is the name that it's been dubbed. But this is what why Rapid Nexus exist.
Nick Talamantes 0:52
Well, that's a very interesting missions to drive the existence of your company. Why have current technologies failed patients today? What's sort of the limitation and maybe talk about how Rapid Nexus is, you know, innovating and changing what's being done for patients today.
Margaret Kalmeta 1:09
Yeah, absolutely. So currently, industry is making products for the wound, which means that the products enter the crevice of the opening, right? We actually aim at the real problem of a chronic wound a chronic wound, by definition is a wound that doesn't close after eight weeks. The problem, why it doesn't close really is because of circulation that doesn't go through the surrounding tissue. And this is why the wound opens and remains chronic in a diabetic population. And so our approach is very different. We aim and we treat the surrounding tissue in order to increase its density, increase the speed of the nerve flow, and also increase the muscular function. In that way, we're able to restore the circulation by using nanotechnology. With our nano technology, we are able to drive in a xenograft right through the epithelium and the Xenograft acquisitions itself right at the site. My background is in from oral surgery, I'm a Doctor of Dental Surgery that practiced oral surgery and cosmetic makeovers for over 25 years. And so the idea of putting in a Xenograft and having it at position into tissue is very common to me. In our field, we put us in a graft even into a sinus or tissue did not exist before. And the Xenograft takes and acquisitions its itself into the sinus so that we end up making the sinus look different prepared for an implant, for example. So I've taken the same approach, and I've used this approach into the chronic wound space. The nanotechnology allows the xenograft material to travel through the skin, and then acquisition itself into the deeper layers. In this way, we're building up the density of the tissue, whether it's muscle, whether it's epithelium, whether it's dermis epidermis, we're increasing those densities. And what we are seeing is that the nerve and the vascular functions, come back into those sites. And so this is our unique approach. This is what we bring to the table, we actually treat the problem of a chronic wound, which is its breakdown of the surrounding tissue. It is not actually the wound itself,
Nick Talamantes 3:43
What's the market opportunity look like for a technology like yours?
Margaret Kalmeta 3:47
In the US, it's a $10.8 billion market and globally, it's a $22 billion dollar market.
Nick Talamantes 3:53
So what does a commercial strategy look like for your company right now? Is there a specific region or territory that you're focusing on?
Margaret Kalmeta 4:02
So in the US, we are focusing on the entire US with a pharmacy group that has a network of pharmacies throughout the US, and what we are really excited about is that the pharmacist themselves is recommending us to doctors and patients, as opposed to salespeople. And it's a direct recommendation. So we have a really high unmet medical need a lot of people receiving amputations every single day. And so we are here to spread the word that now we are able to help. We're commercializing already in two weeks.
Nick Talamantes 4:39
So you're already going to be available. I could be prescribed this if I had a chronic wound.
Margaret Kalmeta 4:45
Yes.
Nick Talamantes 4:45
That's incredible. Well, tell me a little bit about what you guys are trying to achieve right now. In addition to commercializing, are you fundraising?
Margaret Kalmeta 4:54
We are fundraising. We have other clinical trials in mind that we want to do do. we show in human right now studies in human studies that we close diabetic infected wounds, and on the elderly and different high risk groups, this is our specialty. And what we are raising funds for is to do the next level testings such as nerve velocity, and EMG. Before and after, we definitely see that subjectively we have an effect on this. We are already closing those necrotic wounds that didn't have nerve function, or vascular flow. However, we want to go a step further and really start looking deeper at the mechanisms. This is what we're raising the money for.
Nick Talamantes 5:44
That's great. Well, you know, you're commercializing in two weeks, what sort of the next five years look like for Rapid Nexus? Where are you going to take your technology? And are you going to apply it in other indications what Tell me a little bit about what the roadmap looks like, if you will,
Margaret Kalmeta 6:01
Definitely. So a diabetic person's journey is very difficult from the time that they're 18. Or so they are told that down the line, they will lose feelings in their toes, or in their feet, and they may face amputations if they don't watch their diet, and etc, and so on. And so what our goal is, is actually to use this product in a preventive fashion, because we increase the density of the tissues and increase the voltage flow in the tissues in order to have all those different layers heal. We believe that our journey will include people very early on diabetic people very early on and elderly people in order to increase the density of their tissues to prevent them from happening in the first place, because we can. And so we would, our journey is to be the product of choice for diabetic and elderly patients. Also, we heal those easy wounds very rapidly. This is just our chosen specialty, our mission to prevent amputations. But so we see ourselves in the diabetic space for a very long time in the next five years. laterally, we'd like to be a preventive solution, and also move into sports medicine, because we increase the function of the tissue around the wound, so therefore we won't we've already tested sports medicine, we know that we increase function and are able to repair.
Nick Talamantes 7:35
So sports medicine, are we talking soft tissue repair,
Margaret Kalmeta 7:38
Soft tissue and hard tissue?
Nick Talamantes 7:40
No kidding. Wow, that's fascinating. I look forward to seeing the results as that technology is further investigated. What brings you to LSI Europe?
Margaret Kalmeta 7:49
I'm here to spread the word that our company exists, that we are here to help the population. This is truly a silent pandemic within a pandemic. When you talk to most people, they don't even realize that this problem exists. So we're here to spread the word that we are here for this population. It's a massive, massive amount of number of people that are being diagnosed with diabetes every day around the globe. And they are facing a tough journey ahead of them. And we are here to help them.
Nick Talamantes 8:21
Dr. Margaret, could you tell me a little bit more about nanotechnology and how it's used in chronic wound management?
Margaret Kalmeta 8:27
Absolutely. So we are using nanotechnology to deliver the xenograft deep into the tissue. Nanotechnology is very interesting because the classical laws of physics are followed by particles that are over 100 micrometers in size. We're using particles that are 20 micrometers and less than signs. And so this is really, truly being on the frontier of this technology. To make it simple, the nanoparticles that we are using are able to absorb the photonics from our solution as well and give a little bit of a latent drive, which is really exciting to us. And this is why we are able to prevent the amputations.
Nick Talamantes 9:10
That's fascinating. Well, Dr. Margaret, thank you so much for stopping by. It was great learning more about what Rapid Nexus is doing.
Margaret Kalmeta 9:17
Thank you very much for having me.
