Like many of my wound care colleagues, I have experienced and worked with hundreds of wound care products. Some are basic yet effective, while others are both advanced and powerful. There are also many complex yet under-impressive options out there. Recently, I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with a new innovation that really has the potential to disrupt the clinical, operational, and financial status quo: Granulox by SastoMed. At the recent SAWC Fall 2017 in Las Vegas, I sat down with Cofounder and CEO Michael Sander to discuss. Watch the interview below:
In summary, there is an unmet need for a product like Granulox:
- The role of hypoxia (lack of oxygen) in wound healing problems is well documented and affects most difficult-to-heal wounds to some extent.
- Existing topical oxygen treatments are not effective because even a very thin layer of water/exudate (which covers most wounds) blocks 99% of external oxygen from entering the wound bed.
- Current systemic and advanced treatments, such as revascularization surgery and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) have their own unique risks, costs, and other limitations–though they can still be used with Granulox, which is an adjunctive treatment (and it can be used with almost any other products/procedures like xenografts, autografts, offloading, and most advanced cleansers and dressings to enhance their benefit).
By leveraging the body’s natural mechanism of oxygen delivery (facilitated diffusion via hemoglobin), Granulox:
- Doubles healing speed.
- Eliminates slough recurrence in virtually all wounds within four weeks (it’s not a substitute for debridement, but it reduces/prevents the formation of new slough between dressing changes).
- Cuts pain in half without the use of drugs, patches, or gels.
- Does so for practically any wound etiology (type), is compatible with most other products and procedures, and without the added operational and financial burdens of many other advanced wound products.
I also find it fascinating that it has been used on over 60,000 patients and sold in 31 markets (40 including in-process registrations) to date, not yet including the US–traditionally the largest wound care market by sales. When it arrives in the US (by far the largest advanced wound care market), its potential is enormous.
As such, I’m very excited for this product to be available in the US as it works its way through the US FDA process. Until then, if a loved one or I were to have a complex wound and were still able to travel, I might even suggest they travel to Thailand, Malaysia, Germany, The UK, Poland, Turkey, Mexico, or the dozens of other markets where clinicians have access to this potential game changer. SastoMed also has some other innovative products and indications marketed as well as in their pipeline, too.
The most impressive wound care cases and data I’ve seen in my industry career have come from combining Granulox with other well-known and accepted advanced therapies to “push the boundaries” of what even experienced clinicians believe is possible. Adding effective, easy oxygen delivery to the provider’s toolbox has really begun to raise the bar where it’s available. With increasing HBOT documentation and reimbursement pressures in the US market, additional scrutiny of cost per healed wound, and of course the skyrocketing number of chronic wounds, this reinforcement couldn’t have come sooner.
Update: Nine months after the original publishing of this article, SastoMed was acquired by Mölnlycke Health Care, a leading wound care and surgical solutions company.