Leonard Pinchuk, Ph.D., D.Sc. and John B. Martin, Jr. organized Innovia in 2002 to exploit SIBS, one of Dr. Pinchuk’s earlier innovations in the field of biomaterials. The novel family of implantable elastomeric copolymers demonstrates superior biostability and biocompatibility when compared to other elastomers in existence.

Dr. Pinchuk began developing SIBS as a biomaterial while a partner at Corvita Corporation, and thus the intellectual property for implant applications of SIBS resided in Corvita. In 1995, Corvita completed a public offering, trading on NASDAQ; one year later, it was purchased by Pfizer/Schneider, who then sold it to Boston Scientific in 1998. The Pinchuk patents on SIBS are currently owned by Boston Scientific. The first commercial use of SIBS in medicine occurred in 2005 with the release of Boston Scientific’s Taxus^® stent, which is believed to be the most successful launch of a medical device in the history of medical devices, with sales approximating $3 billion in the first year of commercialization.

SIBS was designed not to degrade in the body and not to elicit a detrimental foreign-body reaction. These unique properties can be explained by understanding the chemistry of SIBS. Continued work with SIBS shows that this polymer can be used successfully in many different areas of the body where conventional materials routinely fail.

In addition, Innovia scientists and engineers have utilized this know-how to develop new classes of biomaterials with similar biocompatibility properties and applications throughout the medical device industry.

SIBS and the new classes of proprietary materials are currently being exploited in the device community today.

Read about Innovia in Start-Up Magazine.