Reykjavik / Isafjordur, Iceland, April 26, 2013 – Kerecis Limited, the emerging tissue-regeneration company, today announced that it has secured US$ 1 million in series A2 funding. The financing, a mixture of equity and grants, is provided by a group of existing and new stakeholders.
Kerecis is the developer of the MariGen Omega3 tissue-regeneration technology, MariGen Omega3 is intact, decellularized fish skin that has had all its cells and antigenic materials removed. (Fish skin is largely made from the same material as human skin, with the addition of Omega3 polyunsaturated fatty acids).
MariGen Omega3 is applied to areas of tissue damage where it recruits the body’s own cells and ultimately is incorporated into the wound and converted into functional, living tissue. Patents are pending for the MariGen Omega3 technology in several countries around the world.
Kerecis recently signed an agreement with Medline Industries by which the Mundelein, Illinois-based company will sell products that utilize the MariGen Omega3 regenerative technology for the management of chronic wounds, including diabetic, vascular and other hard-to-heal wounds. Initially Medline will sell these products in the United Kingdom and several Middle Eastern countries.
According to the International Diabetic Federation, 5 percent of the global population (366 million people) have diabetes. By 2030 this number will have risen to 552 million. Fully 15 percent of all diabetics develop problem wounds of the sort that MariGen Omega3 can be used to treat. In the Middle East and North Africa 33 million (just under 10 percent of the population) have diabetes, twice the global average. This number is expected to double to 60 million in less than 20 years.
Virtually any disease that results from damaged or failing tissues may potentially be cured with regenerative technologies. Kerecis is developing regenerative technologies for repairing damaged tissue in vivo, and by growing the tissues and organs in vitro and implanting them into the patient. The company’s most advanced development plans include products to treat, for example, chronic wounds in diabetes patients and hernias, as well as to treat defects in dura mater after neurosurgery.
Comment:
Gudmundur Fertram Sigurjonsson, Founder and CEO, Kerecis:
“The funding will allow us to complete the ongoing clinical trials that are required to gain regulatory approval for the wound-treatment indication of MariGen Omega3 in the United States, as well as to fund the initial steps in marketing our first product in CE marking regulated markets.”
For further information, contact:
G. Fertram Sigurjonsson, Founder and CEO, Kerecis
Phone (Iceland) +354 8494960 / (U.S.) (703) 879-6535
E-mail: gfs@kerecis.com
