3DM in the Australian, page-3

The article talks mostly about a lady who had a titanium insert installed in her spine built by Anatomics, but here's some of it as it relates to 3DM:

....Just how rapidly things are moving was shown in June when a Melbourne company, 3D Medical, announced it had developed Australia’s first 3D-printed titanium jaw implant designed to realign the face of a 32-year-old Melbourne man, Richard Stratton. 3D Medical’s chairman, Dr Nigel Finch, says the company will produce another 25 of the implants by June next year. But Finch is not a medical doctor – he has a PhD in business law – and 3D Medical does not yet have ISO accreditation to make medical devices.

The jaw implant – which is designed to replace the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) – was invented by a Melbourne maxillofacial surgeon, Dr George Dimitroulis, and developed with scientists at the University of Melbourne and the company Signature Orthopaedics. Dimitroulis has formed a company, TMJ Solutions, to sell it commercially, and hired 3D Medical as the manufacturer. But the first implant was actually printed in New Zealand because 3D Medical’s titanium printer is not yet calibrated. According to Finch, 3D Medical helped design the implant, and also played a role in “gaining necessary approvals with hospitals, clinicians, healthcare suppliers and the health insurer”.

Jaw implants are notoriously prone to malfunction; the US Food and Drug Administration has reported that substantial numbers of patients report extreme pain from TMJ implants, and it allows only two companies to make them. But Dimitroulis says his first operation was a success and he is hoping his company can become “the third player” in the market. “Hopefully with a bit more cash from investors we may have a fledgling new Australian medical device company,” he says. Meanwhile he is already working on a new 3D-printed surgical implant which he says he will announce soon. “So watch this space!” he says cheerfully.....