Healthy future as Celltran is bought from administrators

WOUND specialist Celltran, the Yorkshire university spin-out company which went into administration earlier this year, has been bought by a pharmaceutical business.

York Pharma has acquired certain assets and the continuing business of Celltran, which has developed a skin treatment for burns and chronic wounds, from administrators for what it described as a “compelling valuation”.

AIM-listed York Pharma, which is based in Milton Keynes, said the acquisition would expand its product offering in dermatology through Celltran’s Myskin and Cryoskin innovations.

York Pharma, which has paid £70,000 for Celltran but will also pay royalties based on future sales, said the acquired products would compliment others it owned and would consolidate its position in the £6bn chronic wound care market.

Celltran was a portfolio business of Sheffield-based Fusion IP, which turns university research into business. It went into administration in June after seeing its losses increase.

Celltran was established in 2000 by wound-healing specialists Professors Sheila Macneil and Robert Short at the University of Sheffield.

Despite around £15m being invested in Celltran to develop its products funding ran out before the products became commercially popular. Its Myskin product transfers a patient’s own cells to a wound.

Further to York Pharma’s acquisition, £510,000 has been raised through an institutional share placing, led by FinnCap, to provide additional working capital for the integration, operation and further development of the assets within York Pharma’s business.

Terry Sadler, chief executive of York Pharma, said: “We are delighted to have secured the acquisition of two further marketed products to add to our existing dermatology and wound care portfolio.

“Myskin and Cryoskin are both leading edge patented technologies approved for the treatment of chronic wounds and directly complement the recently acquired Flammazine and Flammacerium. Our expertise in protease modulation and skin barrier function will enable us rapidly to build further value into the Celltran assets.

“The associated fundraising also demonstrates continuing investor confidence in the market opportunity for these novel products and the ability of York Pharma to deliver new innovative treatments to the market.”