Tissue Regenix Ramps Up Hiring Efforts

British company Tissue Regenix Group plc, a regenerative medicine company, has appointed two new executives at its U.S. subsidiary Tissue Regenix Wound Care Inc. (TRWC). Patti Johnston was named senior director of clinical affairs last month, and was appointed to work with healthcare professionals and partners to lead the clinical development of the company’s Dcell decellularized medical devices for the U.S. market. Former Kinetic Concepts (KCI) executive Tim Buechner was hired as vice president of operations for TRWC.

The executives come to TRWC shortly after the company entered a partnership agreement with Community Tissue Services (CTS), one of the largest tissue banks in the United States, to develop Dcell dermis products to target the wound care market.

Prior to this appointment, Johnston was director of U.S. Sales for Polyremedy, also a wound care company. She is owner and president of Positive Outcomes Inc., a clinical and financial outcomes provider that has develops tools to drive positive outcomes for use across care settings. She has previously held roles at Systagenix, KCI and Hill-Rom.

“Patti has a national reputation as a healthcare industry leader with a background in sales, wound management and development,” said Greg Bila, president of TRWC. “Her appointment is a logical next step in our strategy to commercialize Dcell. Patti joins us at what is an exciting time for the company, and her clinical expertise will help us continue with the strong progress we have already made in targeting U.S. markets.”

Buechner was most recently from KCI where he was senior director of commercial and sales operations. He has more than 25 years of experience across many disciplines including contracting, revenue cycle, sales operations, finance and project management.

TRWC is currently establishing a new head office in San Antonio, Texas, to facilitate the next phase of its expansion. The company hopes to collaborate with more research and clinical partners to expand the range of treatments using the Dcell process. Tim will be responsible for developing an agile infrastructure for the organization that is capable of supporting the needs of the business and is customer-centric.

“Tim joins a strong management team who are driving Tissue Regenix’s business growth and partnership development program in the United States,” said Antony Odell, managing director of Tissue Regenix Group Plc. “Whilst we only established Tissue Regenix Wound Care Inc. in November, we have worked for around three years with research partners at Yale University developing treatments for U.S. and global markets. Our latest partnership with CTS to produce dermis skin-grafts, plus the work with Yale on vascular patches (which have already achieved European CE marking) and the very promising work on heart valves with the Pontifical University of Parana means we are at an advanced stage in developing a range of treatments using Dcell technology, giving access to markets worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Tissue Regenix is involved in a research collaboration with Alan Dardik, M.D., associate professor of vascular surgery at Yale University, to develop vascular patches; and with Professor Francisco da Costa from the Pontifical University of Panama to commercialize Dcell heart valves and facilitate the company’s entry into the $1 billion global tissue heart valve market.

Tissue Regenix’s Dcell, or decellularization, technology removes DNA and other cellular material from animal and human tissue leaving an acellular tissue scaffold. This scaffold is intended to repair diseased or worn out body parts, and because of its nature is not rejected by the patient’s body. Potential applications of this process include vascular disease, heart valve replacement and knee repair.