Patient in Siberia walks with new Russian nanoceramics hip; German market dominance to be challenged

Surgeons in Novosibirsk, in Siberia, earlier this summer performed a successful implantation of a nanoceramics-based hip joint prosthesis in a 53-year-old male, Russia’s first such surgery ever. The Russian endoprosthesis has been produced by NEVZ-Ceramics, a local innovation company, the Russian news agency Interfax reported . 

The patient, a resident of Birobidjan in the Evreiskiy Autonomous District in Southeast Siberia, is said to be up and about again after the surgery with his Russian-made artificial hip. The surgeons claim the surgery was successful, and currently seek ways of taking their expertise to other hospitals and other Russian regions. 

Since June 2, 2015, doctors at the Novosibirsk Tsivyan Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics are reported to have performed about 40 such operations, with the service life of a prosthesis like that believed to be 20 years. 

The artificial hip has been developed by a collaborative team of researchers from the Tsivyan Institute, the Novosibirsk Technical University, the local Institute of Solid-State Chemistry and Mechanochemistry, and NEVZ-Ceramics, the manufacturer of the prosthesis and a portfolio company of Rusnano, Russia’s nanotech giant. 

It took the developers three years to bring their product to market. They’re currently setting up shop in Novosibirsk to produce the endoprosthesis. The future site is expected to become the world’s second largest in this segment after Germany’s CeramTec that now covers 93% of the global needs for such solutions. The factory is projected to start by making 500 prostheses a month and then step up effort next year to as many as 20,000 endoprostheses a year. 

The Russian prosthesis will cost just over $1,100 apiece. The German manufacturers market their product at 2,500 euros apiece.

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