Mesynthes eyes US, Europe
Wellington Gold supreme winner gears up for lucrative export markets.
Monday, May 23 2011 || Cool company || BY Claire Rogers, Businessday.co.nz
Mesynthes' Brian Ward. Photography: Ross Giblin, The Dominion Post
Lower Hutt firm Mesynthes is gearing up to take the plunge in the lucrative United States wound care market and has set its sights on the bigger business of soft tissue repair.
The company took out the supreme award at the Wellington business Gold Awards last week, as well as the research and development award for its work developing a regenerative tissue substitute.
Called Endoform, it is made from the forestomachs of sheep and assists the repair of damaged tissue by facilitating tissue growth. In time, the substitute tissue is replaced by new tissue.
Mesynthes' first product is designed to treat wounds such as burns and skin ulcers and minimise their scarring.
The 15-person company won approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration in January 2010 for the product and expects to tick over its first sales this year after recently signing with a distribution partner there, says chief executive Brian Ward.
"That [deal] is allowing us to build all of the capacity and infrastructure and everything we will need for the product to be a commercial success. They are bringing resources to bear to make that happen as well."
Mesynthes is working to get the green light for the product from the European regulator to pave the way for sales there next year. That approval should also ease its entry into other countries, such as Australia, that tend to follow the regulatory lead of Europe, he says.
It is also close to filing for FDA approval for its new "implantable" product, for assisting soft tissue reconstruction after traumatic injuries and surgical procedures such as tumour and breast cancer removals.
That approval process will likely be completed early next year and, in the meantime, Mesynthes is talking to potential partners to distribute the product in the US.
Mesynthes has approval to sell its wound care product in New Zealand, but its focus has been on the more lucrative North American market, Mr Ward says.
The combined US and European market for active wound therapies is expected to be worth more than US$400 million by 2014, while the US soft tissue repair market is worth more than US$1.5 billion – with biological products accounting for more than 50 per cent of the market's value.
Total investment in the company to date has been about $4 million plus $1m in grants from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and the former Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.
It will need a further $4m-5m in investment to advance product development and get sales momentum, and is looking to investors at home and in Australia and the US.
While it's likely to set up offices overseas at some point, New Zealand is the natural home for manufacturing and research and development, he says.
