April 2000

WOUND CARE RESEARCH :
Improving Wound Care

Xylos Corporation, a biomedical company located in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Business Incubator, recently received a $1 million equity investment from Smith & Nephew, a leading international medical products company based in the United Kingdom. The investment will aid the development of the company’s wound-care dressing that is expected to revolutionize the industry.

The dressing, called Xcell(TM), is made from high-quality biosynthesized microbial cellulose produced by a process patented by Rensselaer and licensed to Xylos. The product received FDA approval last June for the care of all types of wounds, as well as for first- and second-degree burns. Xcell(TM) is expected to sell for around $10 per dressing, making it highly competitive in the industry.

In human clinical trials, more than half of the wounds in a series of patients suffering from a total of 31 severe leg ulcers completely healed. The other half showed marked progress over the eight-week course of treatment. These wounds had previously been treated, but not cured, by the highest level of wound care available on the market.

Over 4 million people suffer from chronic skin ulcers and 100,000 burn victims are admitted to hospitals in the U.S. each year. About 800,000 diabetics each year develop persistent sores that will not heal often require amputation.

Most cellulose now used by industry comes from plants. But a tiny microbe, Acetobacter xylinum, produces the world’s best cellulose, according to Serafica. In 1993 and 1994, he supervised a commercial operation in his native Philippines that produced this cellulose for use as a popular sweet treat—nata de coco.

Johnson & Johnson had patented the idea of using microbial cellulose in wound-care dressings, but was not able to produce it economically. J&J licensed to Xylos the exclusive worldwide rights to those patents.

CONTACT: Theresa Bourgeois, (518) 276-2840, bourgt@rpi.edu

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