Healthpoint Introduces New Medical Affairs Department

Healthpoint (Fort Worth, Tex) recently incorporated a new Medical Affairs department. The new branch’s mission is to develop and support scientific, clinical, and educational programs to help improve clinical outcomes. Working initiatives to achieve this goal include establishing collaborative partnerships with key opinion leaders, academic institutions, professional organizations, and advocacy groups, providing peer-level medical leadership and support for investigator-initiated research, and exploring clinical educational programs. Such initiatives will help enrich clinicians’ knowledge of current issues in wound care development.

Visit http://www.healthpoint.com for more information.

Derma Sciences Inc Acquired Technology License for Topical Wound Treatment

Derma Sciences, Inc (Princeton, NJ) purchased the technology license for the topical application, DSC127, which has shown to be successful in treating wounds such as diabetic ulcers, pressure ulcers, burns, and is also effective in reducing scars from surgical procedures.

The treatment has been effective in pre-clinical animal models for the accelerated healing of excisional injuries and reducing scars. The Phase II safety and efficacy clinical program is projected to begin in the first half of 2008 and be finished by the second half of 2009.

Dr. Laura Bolton, chief scientific advisor to the company said, “If the clinical studies match the pre-clinical results, the products from this technology have major potential in soft tissue and bone healing, dermatologic, surgical and oncologic applications.”

Visit http://www.dermasciences.com for more information.

Clinical Trials Begin for Drug to Prevent Surgical Site Infections

Innocoll Inc (Ashburn, Va) announced the beginning of 2 phase III clinical trials to investigate its CollaRx^® Gentamicin Surgical Implant for the prevention of surgical site infections.

The product is a fully biodegradable, leave-behind implant that contains the broad-spectrum aminoglycoside antibiotic, gentamicin. By applying gentamicin directly to the target tissue for localized action and maintaining low systemic levels below the toxicity threshold, the product serves as a systemic antibiotic therapy for the treatment of localized deep tissue infections, while preventing surgical site infections in hard and soft tissues.

Cardiac surgery and open colorectal surgery patients are the two target groups for these trials, since they are prone to surgical infection.

Visit http://www.innocollinc.com for more information.

National Institutes of Health Human Microbiome Project Developed

The National Institutes of Health (NIH, Bethesda, Md) launched its Human Microbiome Project. The human microbiome is the collective genomes of all microorganisms present in or on the human body. The goal of the project is to discover how these microorganisms interact with the human body to affect health and disease. Previous research has shown that the composition of microbial communities may contribute to chronic health conditions such as diabetes, asthma, obesity, and digestive disorders.

Researchers will use a process called metagenomic sequencing to sequence 600 microbial genomes, providing a resource for investigators to discover what microbial communities exist in different parts of the human body, and how these communities change in the presence of disease.

Visit http://www.nih.gov for more information.