AFIRM will use regenerative medicine to develop new treatments for battlefield injuries
Intercytex Group plc (LSE: ICX) today announces that it is part of a group that have been selected to establish the United States’ Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM), supported by a foundation grant from the US Government totalling $85 million. The purpose of AFIRM is to use the science of regenerative medicine to develop new treatments for battlefield injuries. Therapies developed by AFIRM will also be used in trauma and burns patients in the general public.
AFIRM is a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary network developing advanced treatment options for severely wounded soldiers. It is managed and funded through the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (MRMC), with additional funding from the Office of Naval Research, the US Air Force Office of the Surgeon General, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as local public and private matching funding.
AFIRM is made up of two civilian research consortia working with the US Army Institute for Surgical Research in Fort Sam Houston, Texas. One consortium is led by the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the other is led by Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and the Cleveland Clinic. Intercytex is part of the McGowan-Wake Forest consortium and is the only non-US participant in AFIRM, emphasising its leading position in the rapidly emerging and important field of regenerative medicine.
AFIRM has been designed to speed the delivery of regenerative medicine therapies to treat critically injured soldiers from around the world, but in particular those injuries coming from theatres of operation in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are five major programmes: burn repair; wound healing without scarring; craniofacial reconstruction; limb reconstruction, regeneration or transplantation; and compartment syndrome, a condition related to inflammation after injury that can lead to increased pressure, impaired blood flow, nerve damage and muscle death.
In June 2007 Intercytex announced a major breakthrough in regenerative medicine following a clinical trial in which laboratory-made living human skin was fully and consistently integrated into the human body for the first time. Its skin replacement product, ICX-SKN, contrasts with other living skin graft alternatives which biodegrade when implanted in the human body after a matter of weeks - too rapidly to act as skin grafts.
Anthony Atala, co-head of the McGowan-Wake Forest consortium, commented: “For the first time in the history of regenerative medicine, we have the opportunity to work at a national level to bring transformational technologies to wounded soldiers, and to do so in partnership with the armed services. This field has the potential to significantly impact our ability to treat major trauma.”
Nick Higgins, CEO of Intercytex, added: “We are immensely proud to be the only non-US company to be involved in this vitally important initiative. Many battlefield injuries involve extensive burns and loss of skin and there is an urgent need for an effective living skin replacement. Intercytex’ breakthrough technology and expertise in developing living skin equivalents should therefore be especially valuable to AFIRM. Our participation in AFIRM will also enable us to accelerate the use of ICX-SKN in burns and trauma applications.’”
Enquiries
For more information, contact:
Intercytex Group plc Nick Higgins, Chief Executive Tel: 0161 904 4500 Richard Moulson, Chief Financial Officer Tel: 0161 904 4500
Financial Dynamics David Yates Tel: 0207 269 7156 Lara Mott Tel: 0207 269 7182 Piper Jaffray Ltd Will Carnwath Tel: 0203 142 8700
