BioCentury
ARTICLE | Product Development

Wounds: Not open & shut

July 16, 2007 7:00 AM UTC

The failure of a series of wound healing agents, combined with disappointing sales for the few products that were approved, eroded interest in the space in the 1990s. But efforts now have been rekindled by proof that a massive market exists for effective approaches, coupled with the knowledge that the medical need will only expand as the population ages and the diabetes epidemic grows.

The clinical experience with some of these early agents, including topical growth factors, provided two lessons: chronic wounds are too complex to address using a single modality, and when control patients in trials received proper standard care, their wounds often healed. As a result, it was exceedingly difficult to show efficacy...