Noraker Since the EIC Accelerator: Bone Grafts Sell, Implants Wait

Noraker is a Lyon company that has made bioactive glass, a ceramic that bonds to bone and is slowly replaced by it, since it was spun out of INSA Lyon in 2005. In the EIC SME Instrument Phase 2 round of 5 June 2019 it won an EU contribution of €2,481,500 towards REBOOT, a €3,545,000 project to industrialise a range of resorbable implants made of bioactive glass mixed with a polymer, for the shoulder, ankle, elbow, wrist and long bones, according to CORDIS. The company is listed under its Villeurbanne address in the European Commission's list of the June 2019 winners, with no partner company on the project.

Seven years on, Noraker is still operating and profitable. Its revenue rose from €1.89 million in 2019 to €4.74 million in 2023, according to filed accounts in the INPI ratios dataset, a figure Societe.com also shows. But the products on its website today are bone graft substitutes, granules and injectable putty, plus a calcium phosphate cement for the United States. None of the new biocomposite implants that REBOOT was to put into industrial production is listed.

Where Noraker Stands Now

The French register shows NORAKER as an active simplified joint-stock company (SAS) at 60 avenue Rockefeller in Lyon, run by Céline Saint Olive, with 20 to 49 employees in 2024, according to annuaire-entreprises. It filed its 2024 accounts in January 2026, with a declaration that keeps the income statement confidential, according to the BODACC notice. The open data still gives a 2024 net profit of €532,841; Societe.com shows the same figure rounded to €532,800. There is no insolvency or other court proceeding in the BODACC records for the company.

In December 2024 the US Food and Drug Administration cleared GlassBone Granules, Noraker's bioactive glass bone void filler, under 510(k) K242782, its first FDA clearance under its own name, according to the 510k Database. The website's "US Products" section sells GRAFTYS QUICKSET, a calcium phosphate cement the FDA had cleared for a company called Graftys.

The Graftys Link

Graftys SAS, a bone graft maker in Aix-en-Provence, entered court-supervised recovery proceedings in March 2024. On 20 June 2024 the Aix-en-Provence commercial court approved a plan to sell its business, according to BODACC; the old company was then liquidated and its liquidation closed in November 2025 for lack of assets. The notice does not name the buyer. On the same day, 20 June 2024, a newly registered company also called GRAFTYS started trading at Noraker's Lyon address, with Céline Saint Olive as president and €100,000 in share capital, according to its BODACC notice and the register. Who owns the new company, and whether it bought the old company's business, is not stated in either source, and neither Noraker nor Graftys has announced a deal.

The Technology: Glass That Becomes Bone

Bioactive glass of the 45S5 type, first made by Larry Hench in the late 1960s, exchanges calcium and sodium ions with body fluids after implantation and builds a surface layer similar to bone mineral, to which bone cells attach, while the glass is gradually broken down, according to the CORDIS results article and Noraker's own description. Most fixation screws and anchors are metal, which stays in the body, or resorbable polymer, which dissolves without stimulating bone. Noraker's idea was to blend bioactive glass into a resorbable polymer so that the implant itself helps rebuild bone.

That idea was already on the market before the grant in one product: LockActiv, a resorbable interference screw of PLDLA polymer and bioactive glass for knee ligament reconstruction, which CORDIS says was launched in 2015. A Noraker sports medicine catalogue, posted by the French Healthcare association, still lists LockActiv, "exclusively distributed" by a company named Innovaker, next to shoulder and small-joint anchors made of PEEK plastic and titanium. It shows no new bioactive composite implant for the shoulder or other joints.

The claims in the proposal, such as "up to 100%" regeneration of bone structure and a "very low re-operation rate (4%)", are Noraker's own figures as quoted on CORDIS. No independent study of the REBOOT implants could be found.

What REBOOT Promised, and What the Record Shows

REBOOT ran from 1 November 2019 to 31 October 2023. It followed a €50,000 SME Instrument Phase 1 feasibility study of the same name in 2018, according to CORDIS. The Phase 2 project had four objectives: scale up production of the biocomposite, industrialise manufacturing and produce a first line of implants, win market approval for a "pool" of implants on one shared safety file, and prepare global sales.

The published report says injectability of the material rose tenfold, which allowed implant designs down to 1 mm wide, that moulds were made, and that shoulder and knee prototypes were produced. It also records delays: injection to the new specifications was held up by the French lockdown, and animal testing was to start in March 2021, six months later than planned. The final results article on CORDIS, from March 2024, says the animal tests "demonstrated positive results for safety and performance" and that the company would "pursue FDA and CE certifications" and expand production capacity. No CE marking, FDA clearance or launch of a REBOOT implant has been announced since. The only FDA clearance in Noraker's name is for bone graft granules.

1. Scale up biocomposite productionDeliveredTenfold injectability, granule capacity, moulds (CORDIS report).
2. Prototypes and animal testsDeliveredShoulder and knee prototypes; positive in vivo results, per CORDIS.
3. Industrial production of a first implant lineNot achievedNo REBOOT implant on Noraker's product list.
4. Market approval for a pool of implantsNot achievedNo CE or FDA approval announced.
5. Turnover multiplied by 15 in five yearsNot achieved€4.74M in 2023, about three times 2018.
6. Global sales networkPartlyRegistrations in Brazil, India, Australia; more than 20 countries.

The Money

Noraker's growth after the award is real. Revenue rose every year from €1.89 million in 2019 to €4.74 million in 2023, and the company made a net profit every year from 2019 to 2024, peaking at €1.19 million in 2021, according to the INPI ratios dataset. The accounts do not show how much of that came from the EU grant, which would have been booked over the project years. No equity round or outside investor has been announced; Noraker is not in the EIC Fund portfolio, which is consistent with its grant-only award.

Between June 2020 and February 2021 Noraker built a new building of more than 1,500 square metres for producing its bioactive glass, according to its news page. Its July 2023 press release says the plant was backed by the France Relance recovery plan and the European Commission, lists the EIC Accelerator grant for REBOOT among its awards, and gives a team of 40 people. In that release Noraker presented its "bone substitute of bioglass technology", not the REBOOT implants.

Why Europe Should Care

Noraker makes Class III implantable devices in Lyon that meet the EU medical device directive and/or the Medical Device Regulation, with GMED, the French notified body, as its certifier, according to its company page, which says it works mainly with French subcontractors. The French state chose it as one of 124 companies shown at the 2023 "Made in France" exhibition at the Elysee Palace for its contribution to industrial sovereignty, the press release says. A small European maker of bone graft materials that exports and now has US clearance fits the EU's aim of keeping medical device manufacturing in Europe.

The Verdict

Noraker has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based on public records and published statements, linked throughout.