Alliance to Develop Botanical Wound Healer

An agreement to develop a new wound-healing product based on a plant has been announced by Innocoll Technologies (Roscommon, Ireland) and Medexis SA (Athens, Greece).

The wound-healing product is based on Innocoll's CollaRx membrane technology and incorporates an oily extract of Alkanna tinctoria, the proprietary active ingredient in Helixderm ointment, which has been approved and marketed in Greece as a drug of botanical origin. Helixderm ointment has antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and wound-healing properties through accelerated tissue granulation and epithelization. It is applied topically and is indicated for the treatment of ulcers, burns, and other skin eruptions.

Innocoll's Collarx membrane technology is a biocompatible and fully bioresorbable collagen-based film, comprised of purified type I native fibrillar collagen. It has been approved in Europe as a Class III medical device for surgical and wound-healing applications. In the new application, the membrane will slowly and continuously deliver the Alkanna tinctoria extract to the wound bed as the matrix is biograded, while also providing the hemostatic and wound-healing properties of native fibrillar collagen.

Under the terms of the agreement, Medexis will fund the cost of development and be responsible for regulatory applications. "We are delighted to be working with Medexis on this project,” said Dr. Michael Myers, President and CEO of Innocoll. "We believe that the natural wound-healing properties of the CollaRx membrane will act in synergy with the therapeutic properties of the botanical extract to create a truly novel and efficacious line extension of Helixderm.”




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