Tissue Regenix continues US progress

TISSUE Regenix Group saw its losses increase last year but it is confident of major progress in the key US market.

The York-based regenerative medical devices company, saw operating losses widen to £6.6m from £4.4m in the year to January 31 which it said was anticipated as it accelerated investment in its development programme and pre-clinical and clinical trials.

It said its cash postion remained strong at the year end with a balance of £18.5m compared to £24.2m in 2013.
 
Chief executive Antony Odell, commented: “This year, we have continued to invest in our product development programme and are poised to deliver a scalable commercial roll-out of products using our dCELL® technology. We have made a lot of progress in a relatively short space of time, particularly in the US, where we are now in a strong position to capitalise on opportunities in what is the world’s largest healthcare market.”
 
Last year the group signed a processing agreement with Community Tissue Services (CTS), one of the largest tissue banks in North America, and signed seven independent regional sales distribution agreements, providing access to an extensive network of more than 40 sales representatives across 25 states.

It also strenthened and expanded its US team and said it remains on track to launch its first product, DermaPure, in to the US market this year.

The group said in the UK progress included sucessfully completing trials of a new treatment for chronic leg ulcers, in conjunction with NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) in which half of patients involved had their wounds completely healed, while it also had a soft launch for DermaPure in the UK by NHSBT to a limited number of hospitals with initial positive results from patients and clinicians.

Tissue Regenix said it had continued submission of enhanced research and development tax claims with an expected refund for the year of £710,000.