Pym’s Consultancy Supports SME to gain grant funding for innovative treatment of Diabetic Foot Ulcers
We are very pleased to announce that Pym’s Consultancy worked with NuVision Biotherapies® to obtain funding to explore the potential use of Omnigen® for patients with Diabetic Foot Ulcers.
Thousands of people in the UK live with Diabetic Foot Ulcers (DFU) and the potential risk that these ulcers can progress to the point where amputation is the only treatment option. DFU are hard to treat and often slow to heal, and patients with plantar neuropathic ulcers should reduce weight bearing on an affected foot until it is fully healed, meaning greatly reduced mobility and an increased dependence on others. According to figures from Diabetes UK, approximately 75,838 people in England have foot ulcers at any given time, affecting their ability to walk unaided.
Amniotic membrane or amnion (the inner layer of the sac a baby grows in) has been used to treat wounds in eyes, skin and internal organs since the 1940s. NuVision® Biotherapies Ltd, a company spun out from the University of Nottingham (UoN) Ophthalmology produces Omnigen®, dry preserved amnion. Expectant mothers who have planned caesarians can donate their amnion, which is then delicately dried (dual patented by NuVision), and cut into Omnigen discs, and rectangles of various sizes.
Omnigen has been available since June 2016, and has been used to treat eye problems in over 30 UK hospitals, including Moorfields Eye Hospital as well as overseas. It’s easy to use and store, and has been used to successfully treat a range of conditions which affect the surface of the eye.
The pilot study will be led by Professor Frances Game at Derby Teaching Hopsitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The funding was as part of the INSTILS Project, through East Midlands Academic Health Science Network (EMAHSN). This project reinforces the value of working with Medilink East Midlands and EMAHSN, who were unfailingly helpful and supportive throughout the grant application process, and continue to work closely with NuVision to ensure the success of the project.
Pym’s would like to wish all those involved every success with this pilot and hope it will lead to new treatment and new hope for diabetic patients.
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