Patients and Caregivers

What is Kerecis fish skin?

Kerecis produces it’s medical device classified fish skin grafts from Atlantic cod fish skin.

Kerecis fish skin is used to support tissue regeneration in surgical, traumatic, chronic and acute wound applications, including burns.

Kerecis fish skin is the only approved manufacturer of fish skin-based medical devices for tissue regeneration in the world.

Kerecis medical device products are authorized for sale in the United States, Europe, South-America, Asia and several other jurisdictions. Thousands of patients are treated annually with the Kerecis technology.

Kerecis fish skin grafts are not available over the counter. Effective wound preparation, including debridement, prior to application of the medical fish skin is crucial for the healing to start. Therefore, Kerecis fish skin grafts are only to be applied by medically trained physicians.

Kerecis is a part of Coloplast A/S

How does Kerecis fish skin work?

Kerecis fish skin grafts are strong and robust grafts

Kerecis fish skin provides the ideal environment to help facilitate tissue regeneration. Oddly enough, cod skin is thought to be homologous to the human skin in two important aspects: Firstly, it appears to have a similar structure with distinct layers (i.e., dermis, epidermis, and subcutaneous tissue). Secondly, the porosity of the two types of skin are comparable; an important aspect for cellular ingrowth of human cells into the graft.

Kerecis fish skin grafts are strong and robust grafts, making them an ideal skin replacement.

The cod skin is mildly processed, which means that many of the favorable elements of the fish skin such as its 3 dimensional and biochemical structure remain largely intact. More detail on that below.

Why does cod fish skin work so well for humans?

Kerecis fish skin grafts have a composition and structure that closely resembles human skin. The similar pore sizes allow human cells to easily grow into the graft and support the healing process. (See picture below).

The ideal pore size of Kerecis fish skin enables rapid ingrowth of fibroblasts (the connective tissue) and blood vessels.

Kerecis fish skin grafts are gently processed, intact cod fish skin. The cod skin naturally contains fat, protein, elastin, glycans and other skin elements that are essential building blocks for wound management. The gentle processing of the fish skin means that the skin retains all of these useful elements that help the healing process but at the same time ensuring that the structure of the skin stays intact.

There is no known risk of viral disease transfer from cod to humans.

Given the low viral transfer risk the manufacturing process can be very mild and no harsh chemicals, alcohol or detergents are required to process the fish skins. Such cleaning chemicals would also remove many of the favorable substances in the fish skin and disrupt its natural structure and porosity.

There are no known religious or cultural barriers associated with usage of fish skin. As such, it is considered to be helpful for diverse communities.

Why only North Atlantic Cod?

From Waste to Value

The Atlantic cod used for Kerecis fish skin grafts, lives wild in the cold sea around Iceland. The reason Kerecis does not use farmed fish is that these are often given antibiotics and there is a risk of these remaining in the skin, unless they undergo harsh processing.

The fish skin used to be thrown away as waste but now Kerecis uses it to create a valuable medical device.

If every wound in the U.S. would be healed with skin from the Atlantic cod only 0,04% of the Icelandic cod stock would be needed. Furthermore no cod is caught simply for its skin. Kerecis sources the skin only from cod that has been sustainable fished for certified food producers.

The state of the pristine ocean around Iceland is very well monitored, and each fish can be traced to the exact location of where it was caught. This means that if any deviation from the quality standards of the fish stock is detected in any location around Iceland it can be traced all the way back to a single fish.

Kerecis Origins

As a child, the Kerecis founder and CEO, Fertram Sigurjonsson, worked in a fish factory at a de-skinning machine for cod in Ísafjörður (“Easafjorthur”), a small fishing village in North West of Iceland. Later, he went on to work for a prosthetic company, where he learned about the seriousness of amputations.

There, he was assigned the task of trying to heal wounds resulting from the constant friction between the artificial and residual limbs.

Having tested various skin replacements, he tried human skin. To his surprise, the human skin felt similar in texture and strength to the skin he used to handle as a kid at the de-skinning machine in the fish processing plant.

Motivated by this, Fertram successfully applied for a research grant to investigate human and cod skin. The similarities turned out to be striking.
Following his entrepreneurial insight/spirit, he left his job at the prosthetics firm to set up a small research lab in Isafjordur and found Kerecis.
This research lab developed into a full-blown biotech manufacturing facility. To this day, Kerecis produces all its renowned medical fish skin products in Isafjordur and now employs more than 650 people globally.
The name Kerecis is inspired by the words “keratin” (a principal constituent of the top layer of the skin) and “genesis” (which means formation)

The Kerecis Mission

To become the world leader in tissue regeneration by sustainably harnessing nature’s own remedies.

The Kerecis Vision

To extend life by supporting the body’s own ability to regenerate.