Wound and Tissue Buzz Report – Oct. 2018

Hello there and welcome to another edition of the FloodGate Buzz Report. In today’s segment, we are going to highlight what has been an absolute flurry of activity from around the wound and tissue space over the last 45 days.  This segment is jam packed with a ton of exciting news involving recent mergers, acquisitions, IPOs, new product launches, and FDA approvals within the wound and tissue space.

Lets dive right in!!

1. Our first highlight actually landed in our last buzz report a few months ago… but only as a rumor. We can now officially confirm that the French owned .. URGO Medical will merge with Steadmed in an attempt to become a leading player in the AWC space. We caught up with Michael Steadman after the announcement ……” He stated that this merger is a perfect synergy that retains all of the elements that made SteadMed great and now adds access to capital and a completely complementary product portfolio that has recently become a market share leader in Europe. Both companies are now exponentially stronger as a result of this merger” Source 1 Source 2
2. This is another one has been rumored to hit for quite a while, but finally came through last week. Avita Medical receives FDA clearance to market the first spray-on skin treatment for burns. This is huge development in the burn space, which has seen very little advancement over the last decade! RECELL uses small amounts of a patient’s skin cells at the point of care in a treatment that takes less than 30 minutes, which starts the healing process much more quickly than other modalities. It will be exciting to see how Avita leverages the momentum around this launch. Source 1 Source 2
3. Medline finally gets into the regenerative space with the launch of Corius. We couldn’t find a whole of information on this product launch and couldn’t get anyone from Medline to call us back to fill us in, so we are just going to have to watch and learn to find out more. Source 1 Source 2
4. Our 4th story is about a really cool start up company being run by a long time member of the wound industry, Barry Wolfenson, who used to lead the Derma Sciences advanced wound care organization before the company was acquired by Integra. You remember all that hype coming out of Canada about Woundchek a number of years ago? Well, after speaking with Barry last week, I believe that Sano Diagnostics could very well be the first true point-of-care diagnostic wound care product in the US, which would help caregivers detect a key issue with chronic wounds earlier than ever before. The product is not commercially available yet, but they are making great progress and they are definitely a company to watch. Source
5.  This is simply a rumor, but we understand that Medela is about to announce a very significant jv or partnership very soon that should make waves in our industry. We will report back on this in our next buzz report if and when it becomes official.
6. This may seem a little less exciting than some of the other announcements, but it will have major effects on the product companies, caregivers and patients as the effects begin to trickle down. Of course, I am talking about the Healogics announcement from last month that outlined a major change to the HBOT revenue platform and a number of other changes including what looks like maybe near sole source product agreements with Integra, BSN, Solsys and a private label agreement with Dermarite. Source 1 Source 2
7. I got a kick out of this one!. Smith and Nephew restructures…AGAIN. It sounds like this time they are attempting to organize themselves for a more focused approach on the full product portfolio, which seemed to be working really well about 5 years ago. Here is the good news, if the reorg doesn’t work…there is likely to be another one right around the corner.
8. At #8, we have the Danish giant, Coloplast…who has been quietly growing under the radar for several years, but now poised to breakout with a national sales force expansion and several new product launches and technology platform rollouts. Keith Johnson, head of sales for the U.S. Wound & Skin care business unit @ Coloplast, tells us that Biatain Silicone with 3DFit technology and EasiCleanse are already seeing a tremendous amount of interest from large IDNs around the country. Based on what we saw during our HeadQuarter visit last year, this is definitely a company we’d bet on as a growth company here in the states over the next 10 years. They’ve been intentional about developing a culture that resonates with their employees, customers and the patients who use their products and they are enjoying the benefits of those investments. Source
9. I recently spoke to the co-founder and CTO for Tissue Analytics, Josh Budman. Talk about some super smart guys….. who, in my opinion, are in the right spot at the right time with the right product! They’ve developed some of the coolest software to hit the wound space in a very long time. Theirs is the only product on the market to fully automate the collection of wound measurements on top of instantly recording the percentage of tissue colors present in the wound bed. I asked Josh about the future of this product and the category at large. He suggested that no one company will win this war all by themselves. It will be a group of like minded companies who come together with the right combination of hardware, software, AI, emr integration, data and clinical insight to truly see what is possible in the world of wound healing. Keep an eye on these guys! They are definitely a company to watch. Source 1 Source 2
10. Number 10 is a big one! We desperately wanted to share this announcement in our last buzz report..but had to wait. We can now officially celebrate the news and watch what OI will do as they move to accelerate their mission of providing innovative and integrated healing solutions that substantially improve medical outcomes and the lives of patients while lowering the overall cost of care. These are exciting times for the folks up in Canton. Source

Well, that does it for this segment on wound and tissue. If you enjoyed it, make sure to like it, share it, and comment on it below. We will report back with additional highlights as they happen. Have a great week!