Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds and Cambridge Capital Group co-invested in the round in the Fowlmere based company.

The company has developed a means of applying pure medical grade oxygen directly to a wound surface in a manner that avoids the restrictions and high costs associated with current hyperbaric chamber and static methods of applying topical oxygen, it said.

Inotec’s Velox device is the result of collaboration between Professor Derek Fray of the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge and Inotec’s co-founder, Mel Vinton. The system generates oxygen, from a small battery powered unit, which is then distributed evenly across a wound, typically a lower leg ulcer. Conventional medicated dressings are retained and Velox does not need to be applied by a trained clinician. The patient remains fully mobile and may enjoy a normal lifestyle, according to Inotec.

Life depends on a continuous supply of oxygen, which is essential for energy-producing chemical reactions in every cell in the body and crucially to the healing process. Oxygen can both actively prevent infection and dramatically reduce healing time for a wound. Very often it is not the initial wound which causes the damage, but subsequent infections to which wounds are prone. Simply dressing a wound, particularly if compression bandaging is used, provides a barrier to normal atmosphere oxygen.

Dr Nick Slaymaker, investment manager of CESF and director of Inotec, said “Our first investment has produced pre-production prototypes of this exciting technology which is based on two patented technologies. This substantial funding round will take the wound healing products into the clinic. Inotec has also won a substantial R&D grant from the East of England Development Agency.”

Ageing populations and increasing diabetes and vascular disease mean that the market for improved treatment of hard-to-heal wounds is large and growing.

Inotec’s technology is aimed at safely and economically offering a new way of providing oxygen to cells and damaged tissue achieving reductions in healing time, scarring and indeed closure of critical non-healing wounds such as lower leg ulcers. The new investment will help Inotec to develop its IP and know-how and use contract manufacture to work with distributors and other third parties seeking to introduce oxygen therapy into advanced wound care markets.

Some 2 million, or 1 in 190, of Europeans currently suffer from chronic wounds such as venous and pressure-induced leg ulcers and diabetic lesions. With an aging population this number is expected to increase dramatically. These wounds can take from a few weeks to years to heal, with some 30 per cent taking over two years and many never healing.The annual cost of this to the European health services is estimated to be £5bn.