Novoskin – Background:

The split-skin graft (Autograft) has been the workhorse of the burn surgeon for more than a century and the gold standard against which skin substitutes are measured. However it is far from perfect in restoring function and cosmetic outcome and there are specific situations, such as significant burn injury, in which its inexpensive availability cannot be relied upon.

Available donor sites decrease as burn surface increases, until the point when sufficient skin cannot be harvested to cover the entire wound surface and still achieve an acceptable result. Also, the use of split skin graft does not replace “like for like”, therefore the provision of a reduced thickness of elastic dermis does not allow complete restitution of the supple envelope that healthy skin provides to facilitate joint mobility and range

The NovoSkin solution:

NovoSkin is currently developing technologies that could revolutionise the treatment of severe burns.

The first step is to temporise the wound after debridement to avoid wound contraction and limit the risk of infection. This is achieved by placing our Biodegradable Temporising Matrix (‘BTM’) in the wound bed to provide a suitable environment for dermal tissue regeneration. BTM is fully integrated to the wound within 10 days of implantation and is at this stage ready for the second step: grafting.

Two types of graft can be applied: Autograft or Autologous cultured skin equivalent.

NovoSkin is developing an autologous cultured skin equivalent called Composite Cultured Skin (‘CCS’), where a small sample of the patient’s own skin is harvested and cultured, on a NovoSorb™ scaffold, using well established cell culture techniques. The objectives are to eradicate the additional injuries resulting from autograft harvesting and to produce functional cultured skin sheets within 21 days of biopsy, ready for grafting on the BTM implant.

At this stage, the BTM has been successfully tested and benchmarked in porcine model, in large full thickness wounds, against the leading dermal replacement product. Human clinical trials will commence in Q4 2011 subject to Human Research Ethical Committee (HREC) approval.