 PluroGen is a Burning Success
When George Rodeheaver, Ph.D., and his colleagues in the Department of Plastic Surgery began developing a new topical gel to treat burns and open wounds in the 1970s, they did not consider themselves burgeoning entrepreneurs, they just wanted to provide the best possible treatment to suffering patients.
The gel Rodeheaver came up with has unique and highly beneficial properties, in addition to being very water soluble, body temperature thickens the gel while rinse water temperatures liquefy it. These distinguishing characteristics make it superior to other burn and chronic wound therapies because it remains in place to deliver healing medication when needed and then is easily and much more painlessly removed.
Rodeheaver attained approval to use the promising gel within the University of Virginia Health System. The gel’s successful use on 2,000 patients with either burns or chronic wounds prompted Rodeheaver and colleague Adam Katz, M.D., to start looking into commercializing the product. “We treated a person who had a chronic wound for six years and we were able to get it closed in six weeks—that is impressive,” says Katz. He also cites the case of a patient who drove to Charlottesville all the way from Tennessee every month to get refills of the gel. “This gives us an extremely strong impetus to get it out in the real world,” he says.
Rodeheaver and Katz founded PluroGen Therapeutics, and embarked upon a path to commercialization, hiring Neal Koller as CEO and utilizing many U.Va. resources along the way, including the T100 program. “This is a successful University partnership story,” says Rodeheaver. “We are proof that the conceptual pathway of technology transfer works. We have continued to pursue the path and we have continued to be successful.” READ MORE
Recent News:
Plurogen Therapeutics Raises $1.7M Seed, Raising $7M Series A; 04.13.07; Dow Jones Venturewire. READ MORE
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