Industry News January 2010

Smith & Nephew Completes asset Acquisition from Nucryst Pharmaceuticals

     The Advanced Wound Management division of Smith & Nephew (Hull, England) has completed the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Nucryst Pharmaceuticals Corp. The acquisition includes the manufacturing and assets from Nucryst’s Fort Saskatchewan, Canada operations and the intellectual property estate. Since 2001, Smith & Nephew has held exclusive license for the sale of the Acticoat™ dressing portfolio, manufactured at the Fort Saskatchewan site. This acquisition gives Advanced Wound Management full control over all the intellectual property rights, manufacturing and assets relating to the nanocrystalline silver technology that is incorporated in Acticoat, which is the second largest brand in the Smith & Nephew Advanced Wound Management product portfolio.      Visit www.smith-nephew.com for more information.

Advanced BioHealing’s Diabetes Adherence Program Increases Patient Awareness

     Advanced BioHealing Inc (Westport, Conn), the maker of Dermagraft® launched the Heal2gether Partnership Program for diabetes patients and their physicians. Focused on patient adherence, Heal2gether aims to increase awareness and proper care of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs), enhance the effective use of living cell technologies in treating DFUs, and encourage patients to take an active role in their healing process. The program works to increase adherence to treatment programs through managed patient support and community outreach. The patient support program provides patients with diabetes with resources, guidance, and encouragement to help them manage their disease and heal their DFU. Patients are paired with a licensed social worker with extensive experience in motivational interviewing to serve as their personal treatment partner. Patients receive weekly consultation calls from their social workers, journals to record their weekly goals, education on DFUs, and a toll-free telephone number to reach their social worker anytime. The social worker helps and encourages the patient through every step of the healing process and then reports back to physicians on the patient’s adherence to the treatment plan.      Visit www.ABH.com or www.heal2gether.org for more information.