Tissue Regenix targets US market

The York-based regenerative medical device company has signed a processing partnership with Community Tissue Services in the United States.

Community Tissue Services is one of the largest tissue banks in the US, distributing more than 230,000 grafts for transplant annually. Under the terms of the partnership, Community Tissue Services will use Tissue Regenix’s patented dCELL technology to produce human biological scaffolds, initially for use in acute and chronic wound care.

In the longer term, it will expand to cover other areas of clinical need.

Tissue Regenix’s dCELL dermis works by taking human donor skin and removing the DNA and cells, using the dCELL process to leave a “dermis matrix” that can be placed over the wound.

It can aid natural healing by attracting the patient’s own cells to the wound area.

Recently completed trials in the UK with NHS Blood and Transplant have shown that patients who have had tough chronic wounds for four and a halt years, who were treated with Tissue Regenix dCELL Dermis, have seen an 87 per cent reduction in the size of all wounds, while 60 per cent of patients were completely healed.

In the US, chronic wounds affect 6.5 million patients at a cost of care greater than $25bn.

The partnership with Community Tissue Services will allow Tissue Regenix to create dCELL Dermis products in order to target the existing $1.4bn market for wound healing devices and equipment, which is anticipated to reach $1.5bn by 2016.

Greg Bila, President of Tissue Regenix Wound Care Inc. said: “We are delighted to announce this partnership with Community Tissue Services. This agreement will allow Tissue Regenix to advance our development and commercialisation of dCELL Dermis. We are excited to begin providing our dCELL technology to physicians and clinicians who treat patients suffering from chronic and acute wounds. Many people who suffer with chronic wounds often do so for many years. Conventional treatments may not be as effective and statistics show that some patients are readmitted to the hospital due to infection or other complications associated with the wound failing to heal properly.”

Antony Odell, managing director of Tissue Regenix, said: “Tissue Regenix’s partnership with Community Tissue Services will enable us to bring the benefit of dCELL technology to address a wide range of patient needs.

“This is an important step in our global commercialisation strategy and is a first step in bringing the benefits of dCELL technology to the US. We remain on course for a US commercial launch of dCELL Dermis in the first half of 2014.”