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Vericel scores FDA approval for $142M burn treatment

https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2022/12/30/vericel-scores-fda-approval-for-142m-burns.html?utm_source=sy&utm_medium=nsyp&utm_campaign=yh

Three and a half years after licensing it from an Israeli pharma in a $142 million deal, Vericel Corporation has won FDA approval for NexoBrid, a gel designed to treat serious burns.

NexoBrid removes eschar, dead skin that falls off of healthy skin after a burn. Specifically, the gel is for patients with deep thermal burns. There are other treatment options to remove eschar, including chemicals and special tools, but the Vericel (Nasdaq: VCEL) drug outperformed them in clinical trials: NexoBrid succeeded in removing the dead skin in a shorter amount of time, and surgery was needed less often, than the current standard of care affords.

Three and a half years after licensing it from an Israeli pharma in a $142 million deal, Vericel Corporation has won FDA approval for NexoBrid, a gel designed to treat serious burns.

NexoBrid removes eschar, dead skin that falls off of healthy skin after a burn. Specifically, the gel is for patients with deep thermal burns. There are other treatment options to remove eschar, including chemicals and special tools, but the Vericel (Nasdaq: VCEL) drug outperformed them in clinical trials: NexoBrid succeeded in removing the dead skin in a shorter amount of time, and surgery was needed less often, than the current standard of care affords.

“When treating partial- and full-thickness burns, a critical first step is the rapid removal of eschar and I believe the approval of NexoBrid provides us with an important non-surgical option to quickly and effectively treat severe thermal burns,” said Jeremy Goverman of Massachusetts General Hospital, who was a principal investigator in the Phase 3 trial.

Vericel licensed NexoBrid from Israeli company MediWound Ltd. in 2019, paying $17.5 million up front with the promise of up to $125 million in milestone payments. The gel is Vericel’s third commercial product. The first two were both purchased from Sanofi ADR (Nasdaq: SNY) in 2014, one for the repair of knee cartilage and the other for burn patients who need skin grafts.