24th August 2017
Jellagen Pty Ltd secures £329,087 grant from Innovate UK’s Industrial Strategy
Jellagen Pty Ltd secures £329,087 grant from Innovate UK’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Competition to support the development of a functionalised jellyfish collagen for wound care.
Jellagen Pty Ltd, a medical-tech company based in Wales is pleased to announce the award of £329,087 grant funding from Innovate UK’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Competition.
Funding from Innovate UK will be used to support the optimisation of a proprietary method of functionalising collagen with the aim of tackling the two main clinical issues associated with chronic wounds, namely sepsis and maintaining healthy blood flow to the site of injury. The project will seek to develop a prototype device composed of next generation jellyfish collagen and evaluate its biological activity in models of wound healing targeting chronic wounds e.g. Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU).
To help support the development of this 19-month project, Jellagen is working with world class research support at the University of Highlands and Islands (UHI) and Neem Biotech Ltd, with the aim of developing new intellectual property and wound care products..
Jellagen Pty extracts collagen from jellyfish harvested off the West Wales coast and following receipt of significant second round funding in 2016, Jellagen recently opened a new 7,500 square foot manufacturing facility in Cardiff. The first-of-its-kind facility will allow the extraction of high-purity collagen from jellyfish, a sophisticated engineering and manufacturing achievement that will make Jellagen the first commercial manufacturer of this next generation collagen for research, medical, biotech and pharmaceutical markets. Market drivers for collagen wound products are the ageing population and increasing numbers of obese and diabetic patients. The “wound healing” market offers significant sales opportunities and the global market is worth $15.6Billion. For example, diabetes is an escalating global problem and as a result the market for the treatment of diabetes related complications is growing rapidly. In 2014 the global market for wound care (for which DFU is a major driver) was worth $15.6billion, and is expected to reach $18.3Billion in 2019.
The cost of failure to treat DFU is often amputation, a decreased quality of life and over $46,000 in medical costs. In the UK 80% of non-traumatic limb lose is due to diabetes, this has significant social impacts. Patients with a DFU can spend 3-6 months off work which is a significant loss of workforce that currently impacts and will continue to impact future economies and societies. There is a clinical need for improvements on current technologies and the introduction of novel solutions to tackle this ever-increasing global problem.
Collagen used in wound care products is traditionally produced from mammalian sourcesThese sources are often associated with religious, ethnic & quality assurance issues driving the market to search for alternative collagen sources.
Jellyfish collagen offers the unique selling position (USP) of providing a non-mammalian, BSE and disease vector free product.
Andrew Mearns Spragg, the Company’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer said “We’re delighted to have been awarded this grant from Innovate UK. Funding will allow continued development of an innovative technology that will incorporate our next generation collagen for chronic wound applications. Wound care represents an exciting market opportunity for the business where the treatment of chronic ulcers remains a serious unmet clinical need.
We look forward to working with our research partners on this project to help develop novel innovations in collagen chemistry that could positively impact the healing process of chronic wounds.”
Welcoming Jellagen’s announcement, Dr Carmine Circelli, Investment Executive in Finance Wales’ technology ventures investment team said: “This is an exciting step for Jellagen. The company are providing innovative collagen products, with applications in both the researchlaboratory and clinic. I look forward to seeing their products have a positive impact on the market.”
View Jellagen’s profile here.