As one of the leading healthcare enterprises, Johnson & Johnson expends enormous amounts of efforts in searching for new R & D cooperative projects every year. At the beginning of 2017, the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center declared 15 new strategic cooperative projects, making its cooperative projects reach 300. Although most of these cooperative projects are in the field of drug research and development, the company refuses to stop the development of medical device products. This year, the company will develop the prosthetic meniscus implant and the personal baby sleep coaching system with 3D technology.

Meniscus tear is one of the most common knee injuries. In serious cases, it may require the interventional therapy of implants and sometimes may even need to remove all the menisci of the patients. As the major function of the meniscus is to reduce the irritation and friction at the knee, removal of the meniscus is likely to cause osteoarthritis of the patients. DePuy Synthes, the orthopedics business department of Johnson & Johnson, will collaborate with Aspect Biosystems in tailored prosthetic meniscus for patients with 3D printing technology to shorten the time of treatment and improve the efficacy.

Furthermore, Johnson & Johnson announced the collaboration with Rest Devices, Inc., a biotechnology company in Boston, to develop an APP named “Nod” to help infants sleep better. Johnson & Johnson and Rest Devices will design the most optimal guidance pattern according to the sleep modes of many infants to analyze the infant sleep data. This APP is expected to be released officially in February, 2017.

In fact, the cooperative projects announced by Johnson & Johnson include hepatopathy, depression, cancer, diabetes, etc. Among them, the most prominent one is the collaboration with Bird Rock Bio to study non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a new field of diseases that Johnson & Johnson has never accessed before.