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SakuraBead - pain agnostic treatment for everyonebroad

SakuraBead · Horizon Europe grant · 2026-06-01–2028-05-31

EC contribution

€2,366,802

Total cost

€0

Beneficiaries

1
About the data

Source: CORDIS (official EU open data), Horizon Europe. Framework HORIZON · call HORIZON-EIC-2025-ACCELERATOR-02 · scheme HORIZON-EIC-ACC · topic HORIZON-EIC-2025-ACCELERATOR-02-OPEN-01. CORDIS record →

Objective

At CrannMed we are developing resorbable embolic microspheres to unlock the growing potential of vascular embolization. We call this technology SakuraBead.Our new approach to the treatment of chronic MSK pain is based on a recent unifying understanding of the mechanism of the disease. Previously chronic MSK pain was considered to be a wear and tear disease, but recent research suggests that the underlying root cause is a self-propagating chronic inflammatory process. This inflammatory process is characterized by the presence of neo-vessels in the tissue surrounding the site of pain. Deactivation of these neo-vessels via embolization treats the mechanism of action of the disease and disrupts the pain pathway promising years of pain free living. Effectively, our technology can turn off the mechanism of pain by interrupting the inflammatory process that sustains it. The technology has been validated in a human clinical studies focused on knee osteoarthritis which resulted in significant and long term pain relief. SakuraBead will be the world’s first embolic that can be delivered by direct injection in an outpatient setting. Should the technology achieve its full potential it can replace upwards of 50 million steroid injections per year.Clinical validation of the technology in expanded anatomical locations is a large part of the project.

Beneficiaries (1)

OrganisationCountryRoleEC contributionSME
CRANNMED LTD IE coordinator €2,366,802 Yes

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