Marcel Maroist: Medical Device That Stimulates Bone Formation in Order To Reduce the Risk of Osteoporosis-related Fractures

Kat Innovation is working on the development and commercialization of a medical device that stimulates bone formation in order to reduce the risk of osteoporosis-related fractures or accelerate the healing process of all types of fractures.

Tell us about yourself?

I have over 40 years of experience in business management. Since the beginning of my career, I have been at the head of several companies in the health and sports sectors. I owned a paramedical clinic in Quebec city and directed another clinic in Laval. I always been passionate about physical activity, sport and health in general.

Wanting to influence our contemporary lifestyles, I wanted to create a company focused on health by offering a range of innovative, patented and scientifically proven products and services. This is another project that lead me to the actual one. In fact, I have directed, funded and conducted 5 clinical studies on a targeted fat loss technology. These studies demonstrated the effectiveness of the technology and also allowed us to discover a significant effect on bone formation.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

The last two years have allowed me to make a 180-degree turn and refine my business model. I wish the unmet need had been clear from the start. But I have no regrets because these last two years have allowed me to grow as an entrepreneur.

What problem does your business solve?

The problem we want to solve is to create an effective solution to restore and possibly save lives in people who have suffered an osteoporotic fracture. It is also to increase the bone density of the non-fractured hip to prevent a second fracture.

For all other fractures, we will be the solution to accelerate the healing process of all kinds of fractures by creating a medical device that is easy to use at all times, inexpensive and accessible to all. OSTAAT, our technology, will allow a quicker return to normal life.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

Our goal with regard to osteoporotic fractures is to fill the unmet need of physicians and patients. In fact, the solutions offered until now to try to fill this need are drugs that often have serious side effects such as atypical fractures or osteonecrosis of the jaw. OSTAAT will therefore be a solution for more than 50% of patients who are refractory to medication according to our KOLs.

What is your magic sauce?

You may be concerned; 1 in 3 women over 45 and 1 in 5 men over 50 will suffer a fracture due to osteoporosis. We have a solution easy to use and the most important, a technology without any side effect.

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

The next steps in our project are: we need to conduct an in vitro study on bone cells and endothelial cells to discover the official mechanisms of action of the technology. Because even though we have demonstrated significant results on bone formation, these results were discovered by chance during the studies on the technology for targeted fat loss.

Next, we will tackle the development of the official device and then conduct a multi-center, in vitro clinical study in collaboration with the doctors and scientists we work with from Canada, the United States, France, Spain and Tunisia.

We can conclude by saying that the next 5 years will be used to demonstrate beyond any doubt the mechanisms of action and the effectiveness of the technology to then have the technology approved by the regulatory authorities in the countries where we wish to begin marketing, i.e. Canada, the United States, Europe, then Mexico, Brazil and eventually Asia.

Currently, we have a company in Canada, one in France and soon a new one in Spain. We are involved in several business incubators and gas pedals. Centech in Montreal, Quebec Vitae and Quebec International in Quebec City, La Technopole Grand Poitiers in France, the CTA (Canadian Technology Accelerator) in Taipei and soon we will be part of the Acex Health gas pedal in Granada, Spain.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

The biggest challenge we had to overcome was of course the search for financing, ideally non-dilutive. This is the challenge of any startup and we are no exception. Our goal is to increase the company’s valuation by finding all the answers needed to convince investors. That’s why we are working on the in vitro study that will give us these answers.

How do people get involved/buy into your vision?

As our main challenge at the moment is to find the necessary financing to be able to continue our steps and to reach our objectives, we seek to join investors who can be concerned of near or far and who believe in our mission.

1 in 3 women over 45 and 1 in 5 men over 50 will suffer a fracture due to osteoporosis. Does this concern you?