CollPlant Gel in Diabetic Ulcer Trial

CollPlant has launched a clinical study for a gel to accelerate healing diabetic ulcers based on  its recombinant human collagen grown in tobacco plants. CollPlant expects to sell the product in 2013. The market for the gel is estimated at $250 million a year. Because collagen is a structural protein without biological activity, the FDA recognizes collagen as a medical device. As CollPlant’s collagen is grown in plants, it offers safety advantages over collagen products that are derived from animals or human cadavers. In addition, because CollPlant’s collagen remains human in content, it is believed to be more easily integrated into the body and less likely to be rejected, thereby speeding up the healing process when used as a wound dressing, bone void filler or for the repair of other tissues. Even more promising are the advantages of CollPlant’s recombinant collagen’s improved biofunctionality and enhanced physical properties such as tensile strength and extensibility: these qualities are enabling the company’s R&D team to design novel products not possible to be manufactured from animal-derived collagen. These  enhanced properties have led to collaboration deals with Pfizer Inc and Edwards Lifesciences Corp . Chief Executive Yehiel Tal said in an interview that CollPlant is directing its technology mainly at two markets – orthopaedics and wound healing — which are growing about 10 percent a year. “There is a lot of unmet need in these markets,” said Tal. “In a growing field of 250 acres of tobacco you can satisfy annual worldwide consumption of orthopedic products based on collagen.”