Cardium Therapeutics has gained exclusive access to commercial development rights for certain novel supramacromolecular polymer complexes enabling regulatable and localized topical delivery of nitric oxide for prolonged periods of one to three weeks, to broaden and expand the company's wound healing and tissue regeneration portfolio.

Nitric oxide (NO) is a physiological mediator that has been shown to play an important role in enhancing wound healing. This new polymer-based technology represents a potentially novel and practical way to integrate the use of NO into a variety of wound healing products, which could include granulated and powder dressings, topical creams and gels, thin films and aqueous formulations, as well as electrospun fibers for dressings and bandages. Based on preliminary evaluations, these NO polymer complexes appear to be compatible with Cardium's Excellagen formulated collagen topical gel wound care dressing, which is currently the subject of a pending FDA 510(k) clearance application for marketing and sales in the United States. From a clinical development perspective, inhalable NO formulations have been approved for therapeutic use and the polymer components covered by this technology are currently used in FDA regulated medical products. Cardium believes that this versatile array of NO formulations offers the potential to commercially develop advanced wound dressings and therapeutics that could be applied to acute as well as chronic wound care settings.

"We are excited about the potential for the commercial development of this nitric oxide therapy initiative for wound healing and tissue regeneration. It opens the door for us to develop product extensions based on our formulated collagen product platform and to develop new products for other wound healing applications and in other medical settings that could include acute applications for military and emergency medical services. Previous efforts to use NO as a therapeutic agent have been limited by the short duration of its release and short half-life in the body, as well as by the intrinsic instability of traditional NO delivery agents. This novel and proprietary polymer-based technology allows for the localized delivery, activation and regulated release of NO over a period of time from one to several weeks, potentially enabling a new class of advanced wound therapeutics and dressings for both acute and chronic applications," stated Christopher J Reinhard, Cardium's chairman and chief executive officer.

The technical advancements designed to provide regulatable and sustained release of NO were developed through research by Drs Ping Lee and Yan Li at the University of Toronto and are currently covered by an exclusive option for wound care applications to Cardium. Dr Lee is a professor and GlaxoSmithKline Chair at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. The business arrangements were coordinated and facilitated by MaRS Innovation, a commercialization agent that is supported by the Government of Canada that has partnered with 14 leading Toronto academic institutions to advance their discovery research toward commercialization.

Excellagen is a highly-refined fibrillar bovine Type I collagen-based topical gel (2.6% collagen concentration) which has been evaluated in a controlled, double-blind randomized, multi-centre phase-2b clinical study at 23 US-based medical centers for the treatment of chronic non-healing diabetic foot ulcers (the Matrix Study).

Cardium is focused on the acquisition and strategic development of new and innovative bio-medical product opportunities and businesses that have the potential to address significant unmet medical needs and definable pathways to commercialization, partnering and other economic monetizations.