Avita Medical Release: Skin Regeneration Technology Critical To Recovery And Quality Of Life In Burns Patients Say Top Clinicians

CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwired - April 18, 2016) - Avita Medical (OTCQX: AVMXY) (ASX: AVH)

  • ReCell® technology improves burn wound healing, reduces scarring, discoloration and itching
  • ReCell® effective for extreme burns in emergency situations
  • 95% healing in less than 2 months achieved with ReCell® for explosion patient with 70% burn
  • Leading EU hospital incorporating ReCell® technology into general protocol in Burns Unit

Various findings from top clinicians who presented at the REPAIR session at Avita Medical's 4th Annual Skin Regeneration Symposium (SRS) showed that the company's ReCell® regenerative skin technology offers important advantages in patient recovery and quality of life for the treatment of burns.

The burns-focused session during the event held at Cambridge University was attended by some 140 clinicians and researchers with an interest in the company's regenerative medicine approach. Many of the presentations explored instances where skin grafting could not be deployed as large body surface burns left few donor sites. In these cases, ReCell® provided a strong alternative, the most notable cases coming from Taiwan, where ReCell® was deployed following the June 2015 Taipei Waterpark disaster, that left 15 people dead amongst the 499 people injured, with burns covering an average of 43% of body surface area in the total group.

"By using early and aggressive surgical intervention, we were able to treat over 60 patients in our hospital, with no fatalities," said Dr Hung-Hui Lu, of the Burns Service of Taiwan. "ReCell® was the perfect tool for severe and moderate burn patients -- it was immediately available, enabled us to use smaller donor sites and demonstrated faster epithelialisation. During follow-up we have seen minimal scarring and contracture."

Under the FDA's Compassionate Use program, US burns specialist Dr James H Holmes IV, MD FACS, Medical Director of the Burn Center at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, North Carolina, USA has been able to use ReCell® in a number of very serious burns cases, including severe traffic accidents and extensive burns resulting from explosions. "In our center, using the treatment has already reduced mortality -- two years ago a patient with 90% would not have been resuscitated." He also emphasized the additional benefit of the concomitant treatment of donor sites, ensuring rapid re-epithelialization and significant reduction in pain.

"I feel that pain reduction is a component of this treatment which will have a big impact," added Dr Holmes. The issue of pain reduction as a consequence of treatment with ReCell was echoed in the findings presented by a number of speakers, as was a reduction in itching.

Long-term outcomes were explored by Dr Elliott Cochrane, from Pinderfields Hospital UK, who presented data on the use of ReCell® in paediatric partial thickness scalds, where the skin's epidermis and the dermis are damaged. His group of researchers treated 100 children with 4 standard-of-care routes, including ReCell® alone, or in conjunction with special dressings. When following up the group 4 years later, they found that the ReCell®-treated group had reduced-scarring and better outcomes compared to other groups, which he believes now warrants further investigation.

"A third of the annual 250,000 burn injuries in the UK are paediatric, with scalds attributable for 65%," he said. "Over four years, we have found that with ReCell® there was a low incidence of scarring, when used with biosynthetic skin dressings as standard-of-care, in addition to a reduction of itching, significantly contributing to our patients' speed of recovery and quality of life."

Knowing when and where ReCell® can offer advantages is important. Having treated more than 100 cases with ReCell® over the past seven years, Miss Isabel Jones, Clinical Lead for the Burns Service at the NHS Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, stated: "12 of the 15 cases of facial burns we have treated were healed within four weeks. We are now integrating ReCell® into our standard-of-care protocols."

"It's down to meticulous technique to get a good outcome with ReCell®," stated Miss Alexandra Murray, Consultant Plastic and Burns Surgeon and Clinical Lead for Burns at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, UK, rounding off the session. Sharing her experiences of using ReCell® in conjunction with a skin substitute in major burns and complex soft tissue loss in over 400 cases, she highlighted: "We had a case of a patient with burns on 70% of their skin following an explosion. We saw 95% healing in 55 days, and two years later the patient is fully back to work and able to drive."

ABOUT THE 4TH ANNUAL SKIN REGENERATION SYMPOSIUM

140 experts from around the world are attending the 4th Annual Skin Regeneration Symposium (SRS), which explores the latest advancements in skin repair, regeneration and restoration and the impact this has on patients. Keynote presentations are being delivered by international experts from the fields of burns, trauma, chronic wounds and aesthetics during the two-day session at the University of Cambridge's Moller Centre, April 12-13.

The educational event, hosted by Avita, provides a forum to showcase research and present robust clinical evidence of Avita's pioneering ReCell® technology, supporting Avita's commercialization drive, by providing the data required by medical professionals and regulatory authorities, as well as drawing from Avita's clinical bibliography of more than 60 abstracts and peer-reviewed publications. In recent months, the Company has published positive data from randomized trials in the areas of pigmentation and venous leg ulcers, while an FDA-approval trial in burns has just completed enrollment.

ABOUT AVITA MEDICAL LIMITED

Avita Medical develops and distributes regenerative products for the treatment of a broad range of wounds, scars and skin defects. Avita's patented and proprietary collection and application technology provides innovative treatment solutions derived from a patient's own skin. The Company's regenerative product portfolio includes ReCell® for burns aimed at plastic reconstructive procedures, ReGenerCell™ for chronic wounds and ReNovaCell™ of restoration of pigmentation and cosmesis. ReCell®, ReGenerCell™ and ReNovaCell™ are patented, CE-marked for Europe. ReCell® is TGA-registered in Australia, and CFDA-cleared in China. In the United States, ReCell® is an investigational device limited by federal law to investigational use, and a pivotal U.S. trial is well underway aimed at securing FDA approval.

To learn more, visit www.avitamedical.com.

AVITA'S REGENERATIVE TECHNOLOGY AND RES™

Avita Medical's unique proprietary technology enables a clinician to rapidly create, at the point of care in approximately 30 minutes, Regenerative Epithelial Suspension (RES™) using a small sample of the patient's skin. RES™ is an autologous suspension comprising the cells and wound healing factors necessary to regenerate natural, healthy skin. RES™ has a broad range of applications and can be used to restart healing in unresponsive wounds, to repair burns using less donor skin yet with improved functional and aesthetic outcomes, and to restore pigmentation and improve cosmesis of damaged skin.


Avita Medical Ltd
Adam Kelliher
Chief Executive Officer
Phone: +44 (0) 1763 269770
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