Product: NexoBrid Drug for Treating Burns and Chronic Wounds Developer: Prof. Lior Rosenberg Company: MediWound Start of Development: 1982
Treating burn victims is a complex process that involves many challenges including numerous difficult and traumatic operations, repeated and painful dressing changes. This treatment strategy, which has remained unchanged for more than 50 years, generally leaves deforming and unsightly scars.
In response to the unmet need for a more efficient treatment, Professor Lior Rosenberg, retired Head of the Plastic Surgery Department and Burns Unit at Soroka Hospital, developed in the 1980’s an innovative treatment that reduces trauma to the patient. The technology is based on enzymes extracted from the stem of the pineapple plant that, via a complex pharmaceutical process, are transformed into a gel-like drug. A single 4-hour application of NexoBrid onto the burn will selectively dissolve the dead tissue (eschar) preserving all the uninjured tissues which in most cases can heal spontaneously without surgery and grafting. Immediate treatment using NexoBrid allows an accurate visual diagnosis and care of a burn injury only a few hours after admission, minimizing the need for surgical excision and skin graft interventions resulting in relatively minimal scars that can be treated, if needed, using other methods.
The unique NexoBrid drug, the company’s flagship product, constitutes a world medical breakthrough and is based on technology protected by MediWound’s patents in the enzymic field. Clinical trials of NexoBrid that were conducted on more than 300 people with severe burns on 4 different continents ended with spectacular success. 95 percent of the patients were successfully treated with the product in a single four hours application. The product also enables optimal treatment of burn victims in mass casualty incidents without relying on operating theaters and surgeons.
MediWound was founded in the year 2000 on the basis of the experience accumulated by Prof. Lior Rosenberg and Clal Biotechnology Industries. MediWound is traded on the NASDAQ, operates from Yavne, and today employs approximately 72 employees in Israel and abroad.
MediWound signed an agreement for up to 132 million dollars with BARDA (the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority) to develop the drug in the United States.
