Human keratinocyte cells (USDA.gov)
Smith & Nephew, a medical technology company in London, is purchasing Healthpoint Biotherapeutics, a developer of wound treatments in Fort Worth, Texas. In the transaction, Smith & Nephew will acquire all Healthpoint assets for $782 million in cash, with the deal expected to close next month.
Olivier Bohuon, Smith & Nephew’s CEO, says the acquisition “reinforces our advanced wound management division by giving us a strong position in the fast growing area of bioactive wound care treatment.” In addition to wound care, Smith & Nephew offers products in orthopedic reconstruction, sports medicine, and trauma therapies.
Healthpoint develops a range of biologic products for treating burns and skin ulcers, including treatments for removing dead tissue in wounds, artificial skin substitutes, and a bioactive cell therapy to treat venous and diabetic leg ulcers that can be slow to heal. The company’s lead pipeline product is HP802-247, a spray-on compound made from skin cells known as keratinocytes (pictured right) and fibroblasts suspended in a mixture of various proteins to help with blood clotting. In September, Healthpoint started a phase 3 clinical trial of HP802-247, after reporting successful phase 2 trials in August.
Smith & Nephew has some 11,000 employees worldwide and a presence in more than 90 countries. Annual sales in 2011 were nearly $4.3 billion. Healthpoint has 460 employees with revenues of $151 million in 2011 and $190 million expected this year. Smith & Nephew says it plans to keep Healthpoint’s operations in Fort Worth, and slowly integrate the company’s operations into Smith & Nephew’s wound care division to minimize disruption.
Travis Baugh, president of Healthpoint says of the acquisition, “It will enable us to accelerate many of the initiatives we wanted to pursue and will provide development and promotional opportunities to our employees that would not have been available to them had we stayed an independent company.”
Read more:
- Process Devised to Reinforce Injectable Hydrogels in Body
- Rice, Baylor to Study Hydrogel, Stem Cell Scaffolding
- Contract Awarded for Stem Cell Derived Burn Therapy
- Composite Nanofibers Developed for Orthopedic Biomaterials
- Clinical Trial Tests Skin Cell Spray as Leg Ulcer Therapy
Hat tip: MedCity News
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