Allevi was founded in 2014 to develop 3D printing, but they took this technology in an unusual direction.  3D bioprinting is used by researchers to model disease, create custom 3D tissue, and study the body outside of the body with improved control and repeatability.  Bioprinting is being used in the fields of tissue engineering, bioengineering, and materials science.  This technology also helps with pharmaceutical development by allowing drugs to be tested faster, at a lower cost, and with more accurate results than animal testing.  It is also being used to make biomedical devices such as sugar stents that help surgeons join veins and systems for improved drug delivery.

The bioprinters work similarly to other 3D printers, but they use cells and other biocompatible materials known as bioinks instead of plastic.  The living cells can be mixed into the bioinks or seeded in after the print is finished.  The 3D geometry the bioprinters create is more similar to a natural biological system than any other model researchers have been using.  The models used can come from CT or CAT scans or a CAD program which allows for very accurate models, and researchers can model any geometry they need.  Allevi provides the software necessary to take the model and print on with the bioprinter which makes it easy to use.

There are over 110,000 people on the organ transplant waiting list in the US.  Many others experience chronic problems as a result of the long term damaging effects of immunosuppression Allevi’s goal is to develop bioprinting technology that will allow them to 3D organs to solve this problem.  Bioprinting might also be able to use a patient’s cells to 3D print skin and bone grafts.

Talc, acetaminophen, red dyes, beetroot extract – are these terms familiar? The answer is probably no, unless you’re someone with medical knowledge of medicines.

David Johnson and Max Spielberg are two longtime friends who sought out to ask themselves what were necessary ingredients in their allergy, common-cold, and pain medicines they were taking, as well as giving to their children. When it came down to the research they found and conducted alongside doctors and scientists, a lot of over-the-counter medicine contained a lot of unnecessary ingredients – aka inactive ingredients – that have actually proven to have health consequences. Between their two financing and legal expertise’s and their research, Johnson and Spielberg launched a medicine business called Genexa.

Genexa is “an over-the-counter medicine brand that’s dedicated to making clean medicines,” and has now found themselves in over 40,000 stores – Target, Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, Kroger, and Whole Foods – as well as having an online presence on their own personal website and Amazon. Spielberg commented on the matter saying, “We like to call it real medicine made clean.” Genexa offers an adult product line that has a greater focus on the antacid, laxative, and cough and cold categories, but also has a product line for children that focuses on allergies, cough and cold, pain, fever and sleep products.

Johnson and Spielberg recognized a gap in the knowledge everyday people had about the over-the-counter medicines they take, discovered a need for “cleaning up the products,” and took to their solution by committing their mission to making a difference in peoples’ lives, “staying the course, keeping their head in it, and grinding it out.”

The article provides a grand amount of information that is not included in this post, so for more information, visit:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/video/357142