Ortec finishes successful trial of wound sealant

The Hadasit Bio portfolio company believes it will obtain FDA approval by year end and begin marketing its OrCel product in 2007.

Hadasit Bio merged a portfolio company Hapto Biotech Inc. with Ortec. Hadasit Bio now owns 8% of Ortec, which had a market cap of $6.9 million before the announcement. Hadasit Bio is a subsidiary of Hadassah Medical Organization’s technology transfer company Hadasit Medical Research Services and Development Ltd.

The FDA has already approved one of Ortec’s wound closing products, and the company is now building a marketing network for the product’s launch in the US. The product closes difficult wounds, such as skin ulcers in limbs or from diabetes, using a collagen matrix with embedded cells that form skin cells. The material is kept chilled, in contrast to OrCel, which is frozen and therefore easier and cheaper to transport.

Ortec plans to launch its chilled wound treatment in early 2007. This product has one large competitor in the market; OrCel has no competitor at this time. Both products target a huge potential market that currently lacks good treatments.

Hapto Biotech’s dowry for its merger with Ortec is a next-generation wound closing product that does not require spreading collagen onto cells to induce them to change into skin cells, but haptides (active peptides), which can attract skin cells from surrounding tissue into the collagen matrix. Hapto Biotech is also developing fibrin microbeads (the basic compound in blood clots) on which the skin cell attracting haptides are spread. These two products are designed to reduce wrinkles, and mainly target the cosmetic market.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on September 14, 2006

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