Wound dressings developed with support from UWE Bristol to be launched by global firm

Technology that a team of UWE Bristol scientists helped develop to aid the healing of chronic wounds will be used in new ‘smart dressings’ being launched by global medical company.

Academics worked over a period of seven years on the early development of unique wound dressings which release nitric oxide to speed up the healing process.

Now these dressings are set for the world stage, after international medical products and technologies company Convatec was granted regulatory approval to enable the launch of the first product based on the technology next year.

The technology, known as ConvaNiox, will be used in a product targeted at the enhanced healing of diabetic foot ulcers.

Dr Ben de Lacy Costello, Associate Professor Biosensing and Diagnostics in the School of Applied Sciences, said: “When you set out to undertake any medical research and development project, the ultimate aim is to benefit patients. The regulatory approval of this product removes the final barrier to this becoming a reality.”

UWE Bristol scientists Dr de Lacy Costello, Professor Norman Ratcliffe, Dr Oliver Gould, Dr Kelly Westmacott and Dr Keith Hewett began working on the dressings in 2015 as part of a partnership with a small company called Edixomed (later 30 Technology). This led to nine funded consultancy projects worth more than £500,000 and helped to validate the dressings.

The work undertaken at the university – which came to an end in 2022 – was critical in enabling the company to accurately measure nitric oxide production from the dressings using the university’s state of the art facilities. This allowed the company to maximise the beneficial nitric oxide gas from their formulations.

In 2023, the rights to develop the smart wound dressings were sold to Convatec for £176 million.

The smart dressing has two components - a gel-based dressing with specific additives to regulate and enhance the nitric oxide production, and a second component which generates nitric oxide when in contact with the gel-based dressing. The nitric oxide increases local blood flow and has a direct antimicrobial effect to aid healing.

Dr de Lacy Costello said: “We started off with very small grants, in the thousands of pounds, reflecting Edixomed’s size and finance, because at that stage it was only a small team of scientists who had limited lab facilities.

“When the company obtained additional finance, they were supporting a full time post-doctoral position at UWE Bristol as well as a research technician. Our last project with the company finished in early 2022, as the focus of the work switched to clinical trials and gaining regulatory approval.

“This academic-industrial partnership is a great example of universities working with small companies to help them develop their products.”