Target Market: The global wound care market is expected to reach USD 22.01 billion by 2022 from USD 18.35 billion in 2017, at a CAGR of 3.7%.  In that, drugs/biologics provide a huge opportunity for growth because of their active role in all stages of wound healing. Therefore, bioactive wound care dressings, that include products derived from artificial sources or natural tissues including growth factors, is fast being recognised as the way to future “all in one” type of wound management. This emerging market is predicted to take over traditional wound care market. The primary objective of bioactive wound dressings is to reduce the treatment time which will save the overall cost for the patient and the communities. It is predicted that with technological advances, bioactive wound care market will grow to 7.3 billion USD by 2020 at a CAGR of 14%. The main drivers for this growth are “growth factors” and synthetic skin derivatives, acounting for about 12% of the overall wound healing market share (~2 billion USD). The role of growth factors, specially EGF, in reducing scarring is well-established. The Anti-Scarring market itself is estimated at about 12 billion USD.

Solution and Opportunity: No transdermal EGF patches are yet commercially available. An EGF patch based wound dressing that will minimise the need for frequent changes, and would deliver effective quantities of EGF is urgently needed for treatment of all types of wounds especially, for the elderly and children.

Through use of our technology, a commercially viable biodegradable EGF patch/dressing can be developed which will allow:

• Protection of EGF in the wound environment: Controlled dosing over time.
• Sustained release of the EGF: Minimal frequency of dressing changes, hospital visits and reduced cost.
• Enhanced wound healing with reduced scarring and reduced pain: Direct relevance to treatment of deep skin wounds e.g. burns and to the cosmetic industry.
• Extension to other markets: Through versatility of our technology a “Smart multi-targeted dressing” that would allow all round superior wound care i.e. faster and better healing, low scarring and improved pain management, would be possible. For example, in a wound healing scenario, a combination of an analgesic (i.e. lidocaine and/or other), growth factor/s and an antibiotic will be possible in one biodegradable dressing which would have a longer term effect due to sustained release. A solution like that is especially needed for handling paediatric traumas and for deep skin wounds.