TWO of Perth’s leading biotechnology companies are coming together, with pSivida’s BioSilicon technology to be evaluated for use in Clinical Cell Culture’s products.
The research will be conducted by the Perth-based McComb Foundation, which developed the tissue engineering technologies that have been successfully commercialised by C3.
McComb will evaluate BioSilicon as a “scaffold” to assist in the growth of cells for use in future tissue engineering products, including for wound healing and burns treatment.
Depending on the results of the research, C3 will have the right to commercialise products combining its proprietary technology with BioSilicon.
Fiona Wood, a director of both McComb and C3, said: “McComb is pleased to be able to test pSivida’s BioSilicon technology, which may assist in the tissue engineering of component skin segments”.
The new agreement is pSivida’s first collaboration in Australia.
“This agreement further evidences the strong interest in evaluating BioSilicon for use in tissue engineering,” said pSivida managing director Gavin Rezos.
The company recently struck a similar research agreement with Singapore General Hospital, that country’s largest tertiary acute care hospital.
It also recently finalised an agreement with US company Cytomatrix to evaluate BioSilicon for cell research and product development, including stem cells.
The formal agreements are held by pSivida’s 43-per cent owned UK subsidiary pSiMedica, which has the global intellectual property rights for BioSilicon.
C3 recently conducted a $7 million capital raising to support the commercial roll-out of its products.
It has contracted US company Ventrex to manufacture its new ReCell product, a skin cell harvesting device for use in plastic and cosmetic surgery.
C3 chief executive Troels Jordansen said the release of ReCell would relieve the company from relying solely on its well-known burns treatment as its business base.
