The Kerecis material consists of sheets of intact, decellularized fish skin that have had all cells and antigenic materials removed. Fish skin largely is made from the same material as human skin, with the addition of Omega3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. The material is applied to areas of tissue damage where it recruits the body's own cells and ultimately is converted into functional, living tissue.
Close to 6 million people in the United States suffer from chronic wounds due to diabetes or other circulatory problems, and delayed healing of these wounds can lead to severe consequences such as amputation or even death. Chronic wounds, unlike regular wounds, do not follow the normal healing process of inflammation followed by proliferation and then remodeling. In chronic wounds, the healing process stops at the inflammation stage. When the Marigen Omega3 fish skin is transplanted to a chronic wound site, it restarts the healing process of the tissue. The fish skin serves as a scaffold for revascularization and repopulation by the patient’s cells with the natural Omega3 lipids in the fish skin helping to reduce inflammatory processes.Wound healing then resumes normally and the skin eventually converts into living tissue and remodeling ensues.
The MariGen Omega3 Wound product is indicated for the management of chronic wounds including diabetic, vascular and other hard-to-heal wounds. The product is produced in Iceland from fish locally harvested in the North Atlantic waters. MariGen Omega3 Wound is available for sale in Iceland, the United Kingdom and several Middle Eastern markets but the company hopes to soon expand distribution to other markets.
"Coming on the heels of our FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] approval last November, this patent gives us a strong position in the world's largest market for wound-care and tissue-healing products," Kerecis President/CEO/Chairman G. Fertram Sigurjonsson said.
Based in Reykjavik, Iceland, Kerecis develops and produces tissue-regeneration biologic matrixes consisting of Omega3-containing fish skin to treat chronic wounds, for dura mater repair, breast reconstruction and abdominal wall reconstruction.