The research and development team at dental implantology manufacturer Phibo is working on a new innovation project: finding new materials and digitized processes for the production of dental prostheses, with the highest possible level of standardization.
The goal is to industrialize a part of the dental pieces that are currently produced in a personalized way, using additive manufacturing or CNC milling. Deepening industrialization, which they have been carrying out for years with the additive manufacturing of dental implants, would allow increasing precision and shortening the production time of prostheses.
This digital innovation proposal, which requires an investment of 2.5 million euros over three years, has obtained the endorsement of the Spanish Ministry of Industry to obtain financing from the European Next Generation funds, for an amount of 900,000 euros. Phibo will contribute the rest with its own resources, according to Nacho Mestre, CEO of the group.
The project will delve into initiatives related to the use of additive printing technology and CAD/CAM in which Phibo has specialized for years. Mestre states that "this new development will have a significant intellectual property base and will allow us to gain competitiveness with unique innovation elements in the dental sector", all with the research that will be carried out at the company's R&D center in Sentmenat.
"The regulatory aspect is very important for us --we have a team of six people solely dedicated to this task-- because the demands in dental implantology are very high, since we are talking about a dental implant that is considered a medical device (medical advice)," he explains. However, for prostheses, this is not the case. In this regard, Mestre points out that "it would be necessary for there to be a regulation for the production of prostheses because it is also an external element to the body and we find that many dental laboratories are not even audited and perform dental structures without complying with even a minimum of basic standards."
The group's leaders issue this warning and insist that they will "pressure" for prostheses to also be considered a medical device and their manufacturing to be subject to health criteria and controls.
The implantology manufacturer warns of the lack of regulation in the prosthetics sector and the need to digitize the process in clinics.Meanwhile, in Sentmenat, the team of eight people dedicated to product development has already launched the new R&D project. 70% of prostheses are currently manufactured with chrome cobalt, "but if we find how to use new materials and advance in the industrialization of parts, much will be gained because we will save ourselves errors and reduce treatment time and 50% the number of visits the patient must make to the clinic", always with the use of additive technology (3D printing).
The company insists that digitalization in the dental sector is essential to advance and warns that, in this sense, "digitalization needs to fully enter the clinical phases of the process." In other words, "there is a gap that must be resolved," according to Mestre. "It makes no sense for Phibo to have increasingly digitized processes and for dentists to still make molds for prostheses with plaster, instead of using an intraoral scanner," he adds.
Founded in 1994, as Impladent by the García Sabán family, Phibo has its R&D technology center and most of its production in two 8,500 square meter warehouses in Sentmenat, where it develops, manufactures, and markets dental implants and prostheses. The group is completed with production centers in Madrid, Ourense ---the result of the 2019 acquisition of Sineldent, also a dental prosthesis manufacturer-- and in Bogotá (Colombia).
Currently, with a workforce of 250 people, it manufactures more than 500,000 prostheses and more than 350,000 dental implants per year and markets them in about twenty countries, mainly Spain, Italy, Portugal, Colombia, and Chile, and also distributes to Germany, France, Poland, Slovenia, and Turkey, among others.
Since 2018, the company is 55% owned by the private equity fund Nazca Capital, while brothers Juan Carlos, Miguel, and Javier García Sabán maintain control over the remaining 40%.
Phibo plans to consolidate both its capital structure and its business, after a period of significant changes. In 2020, Phibo suffered the setback of COVID-19 ---overcome with an ERTE for most of the staff because they could only work on specific actions such as manufacturing parts for ventilators destined for hospitals--- and the bankruptcy of the Dentix chain of establishments, one of its main clients in both Spain and Colombia. The situation was remedied with a capital increase of 2 million euros by the majority partner and another five million euros with external financing.
The group expects to bill 40 million euros in 2025 and grow through business alliances"With the reoriented growth plan, Phibo has set a target of 20% growth in turnover, up to the 40 million euros foreseen for 2025, and maintaining the workforce. "We will focus on R&D to gain added value and competitiveness and on strategic agreements, rather than on growth through acquisitions," says Mestre. He thus points to alliances such as the one they have closed with the American company Viax Dental Technologies, specialized in dental aesthetics, and sets it as an example of the type ofpartnersto seek to grow and expand internationally. "But with the focus always on Spain, Portugal, and Italy, where we have a lot of room to grow," Mestre concludes.