Ilika and partners win £153K grant for wound product

04 Aug 2010 | News

Grant

Ilika plc, a cleantech materials discovery company, has announced that a collaboration between three UK organisations with world-leading technology in the field of skin regeneration, led by its healthcare subsidiary Altrika, has been awarded a £153,000 grant from the UK Technology Strategy Board for the development of a treatment for full thickness skin wounds.

Altrika, medical charity the RAFT Institute (Restoration of Appearance and Function Trust) and Cardiff University have secured the grant to bring together their technology and expertise.

Existing technologies in the field of skin wound treatment have shown some success, but there is no universally accepted solution to the problem of hard-to-heal wounds. This is largely due to the delicate nature of these wounds and the inability of existing products to cope with the range of conditions in which they must work. Many of the products currently available are prohibitively expensive, further preventing their broader uptake.

The project brings together Altrika’s polymer surface technology for epidermal regeneration, which forms the basis of its Myskin and Cryoskin burns treatment products, the SmartMatrix dermal scaffold currently being developed by the RAFT Institute and the micro-engineering capabilities of the Manufacturing Engineering Centre at Cardiff University. By combining the epidermal and dermal components, the programme aims to develop a full thickness skin repair product, which is both more effective and more cost effective than existing solutions.

Ilika’s Chief Executive, Graeme Purdy, said, “We are delighted to have secured this grant from the Technology Strategy Board. Myskin and Cryoskin are already in successful commercial production; combining this technology with the SmartMatrix scaffold will allow us to enhance our commitment to the treatment of problem wounds.”

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