Bayer announces plans to enter wound-healing market

Bayer has announced its plans to enter the wound-healing product market, as its subsidiary Bayer Innovation reports the development of technology for the production of bioresorbable wound dressings based on silica gel fibres.

The dressing will be tested in a number of trials as a treatment for chronic wounds, with the firm anticipating the granting of regulatory approval by 2010.

Bayer notes future plans to incorporate anti-inflammatory drugs and analgesics into the silica gel fibres as a further means of encouraging wound healing.

Last week, the company announced the establishment of a facility that will manufacture the dressing in quantities sufficient to facilitate clinical trials of the product.

Dr Detlef Wollweber, managing director of Bayer Innovation, said: “With this project we are providing Bayer with a way into one of the most interesting medical technology markets of the future.”

He forecast that the market for wound-healing technology could surpass three billion euros (two billion pounds), with a predicted annual growth rate of up to 15 per cent.

Last week, researchers from the University of Manchester reported positive results from a trial investigating the use of maggots to treat wounds contaminated with MRSA, with the treatment period for these patients reduced from 28 weeks to three.