Project description
Eggshell membrane proteins used for chronic wound healing
Chronic wounds such as leg ulcer, pressure ulcer and diabetic foot ulcer are wounds that fail to heal within a period of three months or wounds that heal without restoration of functional integrity. Besides a recovery time spanning from years to decades, patients experience severe pain, emotional distress and limited mobility. This EU-funded project will work on the clinical validation and commercial production of the innovative wound dressing DermaRep recently developed by the company Biovotec. Isolated from eggshell membrane and readily available, this disruptive product could become a new benchmark in wound healing while bringing down the enormous cost of chronic wound treatment.
Objective
A chronic wound (such as Leg Ulcer (LU), Pressure Ulcer (PU) and Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU) can be defined as one that has failed to proceed through an orderly and timely reparative process to produce anatomic and functional integrity within a period of 3 months or that has proceeded through the repair process without establishing a sustained and anatomic and functional result. Chronic wounds may require several years to heal, and some remain unhealed for decades. During this time, patients can experience severe pain, significant emotional and physical distress, reduced mobility and social isolation.
LU, PU and DFU are a major healthcare cost for all developed countries. The main driver for growth in cost is the treatment of chronic and complex wounds in the aging population, complicated by the increase in diabetes and other metabolic disorders. LUs account for $50Bn of global wound care burden in 2015 and are to reach $53Bn in 2020. DFUs account for $52Bn – and are to reach $56Bn by 2020. Further, PUs account for $41Bn of global wound care burden in 2015 – and are to reach $47Bn by 2020.
We have developed an innovative wound dressing, DermaRep™, that is based on biomaterial derived from Eggshell Membrane (ESM) – a by-product readily available in the egg industry. The purified form of ESM is called Purified Eggshell Membrane Protein (PEP).
DermaRep™ is disruptive and will become the benchmark in the wound healing market as it directly addresses the healthcare needs by providing a novel wound care product that is significantly more effective than current Standard of Care (SoC, relatively non-expensive silicon, foam and hydrocolloid dressings) and at least as effective as existing State of the Art (SoA) collagen-based dressings.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
IA - Innovation actionCoordinator
0275 OSLO
Norway
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.